Titans win out

News from the race courses from day one of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series

The official version of the GBR Challenge v Team Dennis Conner match

GBR Challenge narrowly failed to win their first race of the Louis Vuitton Cup, losing by 20 seconds to Team Dennis Conner. After an equal pre-start, the American team headed off to the left with the young British team holding the usually favoured right hand side of the course.

After six boat lengths, Harrison's men tacked towards the left and as the boats converged it was obvious that USA 66 was going to attempt to cross ahead on port. Ian Walker at the helm, ducked to avoid a potential collision, whilst Ado Stead raised the protest flag, but the jury ruled that Team Dennis Conner would have passed clearly in front. Whilst GBR Challenge constantly threatened Stars & Stripes, Conner's team used their superior America's Cup experience to cling onto their lead.

Skipper, Ian Walker was quick to pay tribute to the opposition. "We sailed pretty defensively all race, our game plan was conservative. We aimed to keep asking questions of the opposition in the hope that they would make a small mistake. Stars and Stripes didn't make any mistakes, so our game plan wasn't good enough today."

"The positive thing is that after all of the hard work with the design team, the build team and the shore team in optimising the boat has shown that, at least against Stars and Stripes we have a good boat and are on the pace."

New Zealand America's Cup veteran and Olympic coach Peter Lester commented, "They are back in the game. Just look at their Olympic programme and you know that they are a force to be reckoned with."

The race started in a 9 knot South-Westerly breeze that was patchy and shifting, with Stars & Stripes starting at the favoured starboard end. The boats entered the start box and then dialled up ahead of the line before sailing off to the committee boat end. GBR Challenge gybed around behind USA 66 as they led back to the line, before tacking off to the right hand side for the split tack start.

After the cross, Stars & Stripes protected the right and continually tacked on top of Wight Lightning, enabling the American team to take an 11 second lead into the first run. Both boats showed good downwind speed with Walker continually threatening Ken Read, but Conner's team maintained their 11 second lead rounding the leeward mark. Again the American team protected their position, benefited by the failure of the primary winch box on GBR 70 that forced Harrison's team to use the auxiliary winch.

Again the British team put the pressure on, and at the final windward mark almost managed to sail inside Stars & Stripes, cutting their lead to just six seconds. As GBR sailed to the right, Stars & Stripes chose the left and managed to pick up a windshift to extend their lead. GBR Challenge came back once again, crossing just behind, but could not pass the most experienced America's Cup team in the competition.