Action-packed morning on the Gulf

Match racer Sam Davies reports on OneWorld's embarrassing defeat at the hands of Le Defi

Match one on Juliet course saw a very exciting clash between Alinghi and Oracle BMW, Alinghi the current leader on overall points scored in both round robins, and the much talked about Oracle with their new afterguard configuration. Alinghi navigator Ernesto Berterelli was replaced by Andrew Cape (as he has to be in Europe for a few days) and Murray Jones today returned, his broken ankle now recovered.

Alinghi entered from the pin-end and managed to cross ahead of Oracle, who gybed over to port and tailed them out to the committee boat layline. After a few circles, Alinghi chose to lead back, and Holmberg on USA 76 tailed, attacking and hooking them at about 1min20s, forcing Coutts to luff hard and keep clear. The protests were green flagged, both boats were then well below the committee boat layline, Oracle stayed high and close to Alinghi, giving them no room to breathe to leeward at the start.
Alinghi tried to live to windward, but after about two minutes they were forced to tack off. Oracle covered and the two boats drag raced out to the starboard layline with Oracle just in control. Having only tacked once, they arrived on the Starboard layline about halfway up the beat and then Alinghi had to live in dirt for the rest of the beat which gave Oracle a 25s lead at the first mark. Alinghi ate into that lead down the run and rounded the leeward mark 17s behind. The local knowledge from Coutts and Butterworth showed as Alinghi got the shifts right and by halfway up the beat the two boats were level again. Oracle still covered and never gave away the right (starboard advantage) so the two boats rounded with Alinghi snapping at the heels of Oracle, in a perfect place to attack. And they did. Alinghi sailed high and, in a classic luffing match, rolled over the top of Oracle to gain the lead. Both boats sailed to the starboard layline where Oracle gybed for the finish, still in control as Alinghi had to carry on to get clear wind to gybe. When Alinghi gybed, they closed together again, with Alinghi just behind this time and Oracle managed to hold the lead to finish with a 4s delta. At least ten protests regarding proper course and overlap down that run were all green flagged!

The second match on Romeo course saw the biggest upset so far in the Louis Vuitton Cup. The top of the points table racing the bottom: One World, who had 11 wins and was clearly the favourite coming into the race, were beaten by Le Defi, who were yet to score a point (until today!).

The race appeared to be going to form until the first leeward mark when One World had a problem with their spinnaker drop, (possibly a broken takedown line) at the critical point of the drop. They ended up with part of the spinnaker in the water in front of the boat. On an America’s cup class yacht, this goes messy pretty quickly and the call for a “chase-boat drop” will be made. This happened on One World and the rest of the spinnaker was jettisoned into the water for the chase boat to collect and enable them to get quickly and neatly around the mark.

Although the teams do practise this kind of drop, things went from bad to worse on One World: they sailed over the spinnaker and part of the sail got caught around their rudder. This dramatically slowed them down and the team on board had to work to cut it free. In the meantime the French team on Le Defi sailed past and out to a big lead. One World worked hard to get back during the rest of the race, but it was too much and Le Defi finished 57s in front. On board One World today, Kelvin Harrap replaced James Spithill at the helm and Morgan Larson was tactician instead of Peter Gilmour.