New kids on the block

GBR Challenge lose but by narrowest of margins - Ed Gorman reports from Auckland

Eighteen months of preparation was finally put to the test on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf today when Peter Harrison's GBR Challenge - the new boys on the America's Cup block - came up against one of the veterans in the nine-strong challenger field in the form of Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes.

The bad news is that Ian Walker and his crew lost. The good news is that they did so by the smallest of margins and put in a performance which suggests they are on course for a solid return to this elite sailing competition. As tactician Ado Stead put it just after coming ashore: "All in all, I was really encouraged today. I feel that we are in a yacht race from our first outing."

The Brits, with Andy Green on the handlebars in the pre-start, faced tricky conditions in which to come up against the likes of Kenny Read at the wheel of USA66, Tom Whidden on tactics and a cast of stars on the American boat. Port entry, light winds, first race in 15 years in the America's Cup...Greeny it's your call.

In the event, the Americans narrowly got the best of a split tack start after a dial-up, with Read spearing off at pace for the pin and Green struggling slightly for speed on his way to the committee. According to the official timing the Brits were 10 seconds behind at the line and arguably the decisive point in the race had already passed.

Initially the British boat looked good on the right and it seemed there was very little in it - Walker and Stead agreed afterwards there was little to choose between left and right as they came into the pre-start - but Whidden had wanted the left and the Americans made it pay. Eight-and-a-half minutes into the race, they tacked and the first cross in Louis Vuitton Cup racing since 1987 for a British boat was upon us.

It looked tight for a while as the dark blue-hulled Stars & Stripes closed on the grey and blue Wight Lightning. "It felt close from the boat," commented USA66 afterguard member Terry Hutchinson. "We weren't suprised to see a flag (the Brits claimed they'd had to alter course)," he added, "and we weren't surprised to see it greened either."

For Peter Harrison, the GBR founder who was on board his boat in the 17th man position, this was the moment the race was lost as Stars & Stripes claimed the right. "That was the key moment in the race," he said at the press conference afterwards. "If we'd got the advantage there, I think we would have held it..."

In hindsight maybe but the really impressive aspect of the British performance was the way they refused to resort to big gambles from then on but instead kept close to the Americans, harrying them all the way round the course and waiting for them to make a mistake. Despite not having raced another boat for over a month, however, Read and Co were in top form and held their own as Walker and Stead initiated tacking and gybing duels in successive legs.