Auckland report

Ed Gorman looks ahead to Round Robin Two of the Louis Vuitton Cup

The gloves, one suspects are about to come off in the Louis Vuitton Cup. After a first round when many of the syndicates were playing it conservatively, the second round which starts in full on Wednesday, should witness more aggressive racing and thus more drama too.

While the top-three teams, OneWorld, Alinghi and Oracle may well continue trying to sail "safe", the same cannot be expected from the four teams below them, locked in a tight battle for the fourth spot in December's semi-final round.

The GBR Challenge, Prada, the Victory Challenge and Team Dennis Conner will be at each other's throats, as the pecking order going into next month's quarters is finally established. People are already talking about "must-win" races, something we didn't hear too much about during the first
round.

So from the off, there are going to be some real humdingers, starting, from a British perspective, with a clash with Stars & Stripes when Peter Harrison's GBR Challenge crew will be looking to avenge their defeat at the hands of Conner's team in the first match of the first round. The Brits sailed conservatively on that occasion but events since have convinced them they can beat Ken Read's crew and they will be hunting hard for that first vital point.

It is difficult, at this stage, to pick which one of the middle four ismost likely to go through. Prada is probably the biggest unknown because both its boats are undergoing surgery to varying degrees, as syndicate head Patrizio Bertelli tries to recover from what he is convinced are two slow Luna Rossas. But it's all happening very late in the day and there is plenty of scope for further setbacks and wrong turns in the design road for Prada. On the other hand, the expertise and money is there for the
embattled Italian team to make some big steps forward, just in time.

The Swedes had a pretty miserable first round, losing five straight matches after posting three wins initially. However their boat looks good and they could well argue that they lost races that they may well not lose this time round - the Brits beat them after Jesper Bank made an error on the
startline which put Orn 25 seconds down at the gun, while in the match against Prada, they had the point comprehensively in the bag until the breeze died out on the third beat and the Scandanavian crew inexplicably failed to cover the Italians out on the right. Against Oracle meanwhile, it was all over in minutes when the jib on Orn came tumbling down in 23 knots. Perhaps the Swedes are prone to mistakes under pressure. But the team still looks strong and it would be no surprise to see them in the final four.

Team Dennis Conner was another one to start well and then struggle with a boat that's not looking that flash and with some fairly average starting skills on display. This lot were out on the Hauraki Gulf two-boat testing as soon as the first round was over with their newly-repaired USA77 sailing alongside 66. The question remains just how big a setback the sinking of USA77 was for this team and whether it can recover. Team DC was the big unknown in the fleet, having skipped all the informal racing in the build-up, but its first round has been disappointing and not as good as some of its rivals feared. However Conner has been around this game longer than anyone and cannot be written off.

The Brits, meanwhile, have the exact opposite win-lose momentum to the Swedes, having won their last three matches. Self-belief and confidence in a team that looked very much like the new boys on the block initially, is growing. How far they can go is a matter of conjecture. Harrison's crew will need to iron out the "weird error factor" which bugged them in a number of their first-round races and they are going to have to sail more aggressively in the key matches to get the points they need. The boat they used in the first round is not slow, especially downwind, but it's not a rocketship either. Changes between rounds could be critical in determining where they end up come the quarters.

It is a moot point, incidentally, whether finishing fourth or fifth in the ranking, going into the quarters is more advantageous for the smaller teams like the Brits and the Swedes. Going through in fourth spot lines you up for a best-of-seven opening match-up with the top-ranked team in the first part of the quarters, a clash you are likely to lose. Going through in fifth sets you up for a much more palatable meeting with the eighth-ranked team - likely to be either Mascalzone Latino or Le Defi Areva - a contest you should win fairly comfortably. From there, after a winning start to the round, you move into the repechage to meet the fourth-ranked team who will be trying to put their opening loss behind them.

A few moments to savour from the first round. The highlight in terms of sheer drama had to be that unreal turn round the pin performed by Peter Holmberg and the Oracle crew during the most exciting pre-start of the series against Peter Gilmour's OneWorld. Gybing between OneWorld and the
buoy with feet or even inches to spare, it looked horribly close to a full T-Bone for Gilly's boat, something the Aussi skipper admitted afterwards he thought was going to be the inevitable result. There was also the point about Oracle's boom. Did it caress the buoy or not? What's interesting
about the incident was the psychology behind it. Holmberg wanted to escape Jimmy "Fatboy" Spithill's control but this was way above the risk level needed at this stage in the championship. You sensed that two years of rivalry between two of the giants on syndicate row - one of them embroiled
for much of the build-up in allegations of foul practice - all came pouring out in that thrilling five minutes. It was war and, despite Holmberg's best efforts, it was the Gilly-Spithill partnership that finished on top. Bring on round two....

The GBR Challenge victory against Oracle was another highlight. There are many ways to win and lose in this game. Teams shoot themselves in the foot, others sail away in faster machinery. The impressive aspect of this was that the Brits sailed confidently and with real tactical flair on a
difficult day on the Gulf and beat Holmberg fair and square. They certainly had the edge downwind but the reverse may have been the case upwind. At the death Oracle, with staysail rolling and unrolling through every gybe, was well-beaten by a team it must have viewed as relatively easy pickings.

Finally the French and the "second" Italian team. Almost as painful as watching the French crew going from bad to worse on the Gulf has been the sight of French sailing journalists trying to comprehend how the campaign bearing their proud national colours can conduct itself so incompetantly. By the end of the round, with "nil points" looking the inevitable outcome,
some of them couldn't even bring themselves to watch the racing at all. By contrast Vincenzo Onorato's happy band - Mascalzone Latino - have been a breath of fresh air. This is a team who are out here to learn and are making sure they enjoy themselves while doing it, toasting their many
losses and one precious win after racing and reminding us that, once upon a time, people went yacht racing for fun. They are also getting better allthe time.