First blood to Ellison

After the first day of racing at the Moet Cup in San Francisco

In front of a spectator fleet of close to 100 boats, and with a sizeable crowd lining the shore and filling the VIP tents, America’s Cup holder Alinghi and Challenger of Record Oracle BMW Racing staged a match racing clinic on San Francisco Bay Monday afternoon (local time).

With Alcatraz Island looming in the background, racing got underway just after 1:30pm in a stiff 16 knots of breeze that filled in to a steady 20 knots throughout the afternoon. To compensate for the shorter course, each team raced with 18 crew.

While local knowledge and tight crew work after many weeks of training favoured Oracle, the crew on board SUI-64 quickly fell into pace with the infamous currents and tides of San Francisco Bay. Strong flood tide conditions prevailed forcing the boats to take advantage of the relief provided by Alcatraz Island and on the city front shore. Conditions were less one-sided in Race 2 but challenging nonetheless with an early ebb tide to watch.

In the first race of the day, Larry Ellison gained a measure of revenge for the Louis Vuitton Cup Final.

With starboard advantage and a clean approach to the line, Oracle crossed ahead of Alinghi who suffered a twist in the runner in the final minute before the start, forcing them to tack back and lose time approaching the line. Both boats headed off on port tack toward Alcatraz for relief from the notorious currents caused by the flood tide heading into the Bay before reaching back across to the city front to find relief along the shore. The boats remained close throughout the race however Oracle had the edge from the outset and maintained control throughout to win by 27 seconds.

With the win, Ellison jumps ahead 1-0 in the Owner/Driver series.

For the second race, the Pro-Drivers took the helm and Jochen Schuemann demonstrated immediately why he has three Olympic medals to his credit. After a relatively mild pre-start dance, Alinghi came off the line flying, hitting top speed, and crossing the start line just as the gun fired to take an early advantage.

Oracle BMW Racing helmsman Gavin Brady appeared happy with his start to leeward of Alinghi and the teams began short tacking up the San Francisco shoreline, with Brady pushed right in along Fisherman’s Wharf and the Aquatic Centre.

The teams switched sides approaching the top mark, and with Brady in a powerful position on the right, the USA-76 helmsman simply ran out of room, the shoreline forcing him to tack before the port tack layline. Otherwise he surely would have led SUI-64 into the weather mark. In the event, the teams dueled just to leeward of the mark, with both boats held up in irons, before Schuemann was able to quickly fall back onto starboard tack before tacking around the mark with a 10-second lead.

Alinghi was fast downwind all day and this race was no exception with the Swiss extending to a 14-second lead. The second lap of the course changed nothing, and Schuemann earned his first win as skipper of SUI-64. The Alinghi team takes a 1-0 lead in the Pro-Driver series, with the 26-second victory.

Alinghi trimmer Simon Daubney later commented: "I think in that first race that we were just getting the puffs a little before Oracle BMW and we were able to put the pole back and sail a little bit deeper."

Earlier in the afternoon, in the first race of the day, Ellison established control early, entering from the starboard side of the line, dialing-up against Alinghi, and holding position as the boats drifted upwind of the starting line. The long days of practice that Ellison has put in over the past month paid immediate dividends, as the American looked sharp leading back to the line and winning the start.

Bertarelli was hung up on the windward side of the start line with what appeared to be an override on the on the backstay, preventing the mainsail from being eased to allow the boat to bear off for the correct side of the start line. Alinghi was stalled in irons, just before the start, with seconds ticking away towards the start gun.

The Oracle BMW Racing team converted that start line lead into a controlling position up the entire weather leg. Bertarelli tried to make a gain by sailing up the shore line, out of the contrary current, but Ellison held on to lead by 22-seconds around the top mark.

Alinghi made a nice gain downwind, eventually securing an inside position sailing deep on starboard tack in towards the leeward mark, but again, Ellison was ready. The Oracle BMW Racing team luffed Alinghi several boat lengths past the leeward mark, before gybing back for the mark. Alinghi was flagging the Umpires for a penalty on USA-76, but in vain, as the Umpires ruled there was no foul. Bertarelli was forced to tack around to make the mark and trailed by 25-seconds as USA-76 accelerated off ahead of him.

On the second lap of the course, USA-76 maintained its lead, with Bertarelli again looking fast downwind. But the race would belong to Larry Ellison, who draws first blood in the Moët CUP with a 27-second win. Racing continues in the Moët CUP on Tuesday.

"Winning is certainly better than losing, but the quality of racing, I think, was just spectacular today," commented Ellison later. "The racing was incredibly close - there was lots of action around the marks maybe more action than we would have liked!

"It’s great to be part of sailing that’s this close and this competitive where the tactics and manoeuvres around the mark are so exciting for the sailors and for the viewers. We haven’t beaten Alinghi yet. We hope to be competitive and we’re going to work very hard to try and beat Alinghi but that remains to be seen."

Oracle BMW Racing new recruit John Kostecki commented on his ‘home-court’ advantage: "Yeah, we think we have an advantage. It’s great having grown up here and having sailed many miles here between Larry and myself I think we have a good understanding of the Bay and we’re contributing to the afterguard that way and hopefully that’s a little edge we have."

Chris Dickson gave his view on their performance: "We had more bad tacks than we would have liked this afternoon and we had a couple of small pieces of equipment on the boat that weren’t working as we would have liked…We all get used to seeing these boats work perfectly and the reality is that there’s a huge amount of crew co-ordination needed to sail these boats at a top level. Usually the guys make it look a lot easier than it really is. Today we had a 95% day on some issues instead of 99%."

Sailing as a guest on Oracle BMW Racing today was none other than Ellen MacArthur. "I learned that you can’t sail an America’s Cup Class boat by yourself…there’s such a number of people working so hard," she commented. "The race actually takes a long time but it goes just like that on the boat because everyone is so busy every second. It just shows how important the training is and how much time on the water you really need. That was the most impressive thing."

Pro Race
Alinghi: 1 – Oracle: 0 Delta: 26 seconds

Owner – Driver Race
Alinghi: 0 – Oracle: 1 Delta 27 seconds