Photos: Emirates Team New Zealand v BMW Oracle Racing

The titans go head to head on the America's Cup race course

Saturday out on the water off Valencia saw the first clash of the titans in their new weaponry as BMW Oracle Racing's bowspritted USA 87 went head to head with Emirates Team New Zealand's NZL-84.

NZL-84 was coming in from the favoured right, USA-87 the left. After two dial-ups Barker bore away on port and gybed around the back of USA-87 to claim the left. NZL-84 start down by the pin and with the early advantage, while USA-87 was to weather half way up the line. Both boats headed out to the left side of the beat, the Kiwis making small gains.

Emirates Team New Zealand's Terry Hutchinson gave his views about their relative pace upwind: "84 was going a little better and maybe some of that is just technique – it is hard to say exactly what it was but they had enough pace and enough height to start where they did and pin us out for 10 minutes out to a layline. So just in straight line upwind performance the two boats are pretty even."

NZL-84 reach the top mark ahead but with USA-87 having the inside overlap. Wise to this Barker kept his distance as Dickson shepherded NZL-84 way out beyond the mark. However on turning downwind the Kiwis were much faster with their hoist and simply because of this rolled straight over the top of USA-87, forcing Dickson to gybe away.

Hutchinson takes up what happened: "The shift went their way so they gained back a lot half way down the run purely on shift and the whole thing, but we were pretty happy with the set-up coming into the bottom there, we were defending the left hand gate looking downwind and all was going well until the spinnaker broke." The spinnaker had ripped on the leeward jumper and shimmered down into the water. The crew blew the halyard and the sheets/guys and within in a minute had a fresh kite hoisted.

"It is a tough one to figure because we have been working a lot of the details on that part of the rig, but obviously that needs to have some continual improvement. It is a really really nice flipper downwind but obviously a little dodgey downwind," said Hutchinson. Nothing that a trip up the mast with some duct tape and enthusiasm wouldn't fix, we say....

Up the second beat both boats headed off to the left again this time with USA-87 holding an 80m lead, Dickson covering Barker's every move. USA-87 broke cover heading left, allowing NZL-84 to go right. The left seemed to be paying and as the USA-87 crossed to the right side of the course, NZL-84 heading left had drawn back level with them. All the indications are that NZL-84 has slightly better pace than the US boat upwind. Unfortunately this wasn't adequate and USA-87 rounded 26 seconds ahead (compared to 46 at the leeward gate). The Kiwis weren't able to make an impression on the final run and USA-87 went on to claim the point winning by 47 seconds.

"They are two pretty even boats out there racing. There are obviously little subtlies there and it is obviously a really well sailed boat so I think as you go forward the type of racing you have there is indicative of future races," commented Hutchinson later .

On what he thought about USA-87 exceptional turning ability Hutchinson added: "I think if you spin it hard enough anything is going to turn dramatically. I think it is a boat being turned hard. I could be wrong. Just standing there looking at it, I would say the boat just gets turned really quickly." The view of most crew we have spoken to about USA-87's possible special appendage package is that it is just hype.

"We could turn that quickly but it is not necessarily the best thing for the performance of the boat," continues Hutchinson. What is certain is that some oddly looking turbulence comes off the leeward side when she is turned hard and the USA-87 seem to have the ability to stop the boat dead rather like a hand brake turn. "We have done a couple of days against them and it has had that look in the past as well but I’m not sure it is necessarily a good thing either," says Hutchinson.

Over the next few pages is our photographic record of this race....(sorry for the length...)