First scores on board

Alinghi wins and OneWorld moves from minus-one to zero

ALINGHI (SUI-64) BEAT USA-76 – DELTA 01:11
Alinghi leads semi-finals over Oracle BMW Racing by 1-0

An enthralling pre-start saw both boats sail deep into the starting box on entering, Then Russell Coutts steering Alinghi did a false ‘dial up’. Oracle BMW responded and Coutts’ quickly bore-away behind Oracle into the leeward position. Peter Holmberg at the helm of Oracle then led the boats away from the start line and did well to control the ‘lead in’ to the line in the last 30 seconds. Holmberg guided the American boat over the line two seconds ahead with better speed, leaving Alinghi to have to tack off towards the committee boat, with only five seconds to go to the start gun.

But, Alinghi had gained the favoured side of the race course. Both boats initially seemed very evenly matched in a drag race to the right hand side, but it was the Swiss boat that picked up the right shift first and converted it into a small gain, which they protected to lead round the first mark by 14 seconds. Both boats remained neck and neck downwind, with Alinghi gaining just one second on the second leg, but really pulled out a big lead on the next beat.

Tactician, Brad Butterworth initially vigorously protected the left side of the race track and duly guided Alinghi into a gain on the left and then crossed over to the right to make a huge gain on the right, getting ‘in phase’ with the wind shifts perfectly to lead at the next mark by 41 seconds. Thereafter Chris Dickson’s team struggled to get back into the match and will also be concerned to lose 39 seconds on the final run to the finish and suffer their first loss since Dickson took over the reins at Oracle BMW.