VALENCIA, Spain (Reuters):

LUNA ROSSA are aiming to lay the ghosts of the 2000 America's Cup to rest tomorrow when they take on Team New Zealand in the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Seven years ago, the Italian newcomers whizzed their way through the LV Cup only for New Zealand to wallop them 5-0 to retain the America's Cup.

Well down that year's table, Young Australia's 20-year-old skipper James Spithill watched on as New Zealand's Russell Coutts handed the helm to Dean Barker to deliver the final blow to Luna Rossa and lift the Auld Mug in front of a home crowd.

Spithill, now 27 and still one of the youngest helmsmen in America's Cup history, will try and reverse Luna Rossa's fortunes tomorrow as he takes on Barker and a Kiwi crew desperate to win the Cup back from Swiss syndicate Alinghi.

Spithill has been hailed this season for his consistent improvement, aggressive starts, and for blowing big-budget BMW Oracle out of the water 5-1 in the semi-finals to set up the first ever final without a U.S. boat.

Hotbed of tempers

Luna Rossa, backed by Prada, has been a hotbed of tempers in the past with the head of the Italian fashion house Patrizio Bertelli famously flying off the handle when he felt bad decisions had been made on deck.

This year, the boat's more international crew seems to be tighter and calmer with Spithill, skipper Francesco de Angelis and Brazilian tactician Torben Grael trusting each other as Spithill plants penalties on rivals at the start and Grael leads Luna Rossa miles away from their opponents in search of wind.

At Team New Zealand, the mostly Kiwi team has followed more conservative tactics, keeping within a few boat lengths of their rivals to steal their breeze and protect their position.

The government-backed New Zealanders came into the LV Cup as favourites and have looked strong throughout, winning their semi-final 5-2 against Desafio Espanol.

In the round robins, they won one against Luna Rossa and lost one when they took a penalty in the pre-start - an area Barker knows will be the danger zone in the best-of-nine finals.

"Most of their matches have been won on James Spithill's pre-starts. We are therefore going to study it really closely, tack by tack," he said.

The winner of the LV Cup finals will take on Alinghi for the America's Cup, which starts on June 23.