2-0 but still in the balance

James Boyd brings us up to date on what lies ahead with the America's Cup

So it is 2-0 to Alinghi: Coutts ahead of Barker, the master still the master. So is it all signed and sealed and the Cup heading for the land of cuckoo clocks, fondue sets and discrete banking? Far from it, in The Daily Sail's humble opinion.

Team New Zealand rightfully should have won yesterday and if Dean Barker had gybe set round the final mark or hadn't been lured up by the cunning Coutts allowing Alinghi to roll over the top of them and then pass in front on the final leg, then this may have come to pass. Unusually for a boat supposedly designed entirely for racing windward-leewards, Alinghi has shown herself to have legs tight reaching under genniker - legs the black boat proved not to have when she tried to pull the same stunt on the Swiss boat minutes later.

Equally odd was why the black boat were not using a staysail on the runs, when this became almost standard procedure for boats during the Louis Vuitton series. If their hula is effective then the added sail area from Alinghi's staysail may have been enough to counter it.

What was impressive yesterday, aside from it going down in the history books as being the one of the most gripping match races ever, was NZL82's speed even in conditions that supposedly don't favour her. Conditions were pretty stable by Hauraki Gulf standards with the wind constantly 7-10 knots from the north.

The conditions, distinctly the bottom end of the wind range the America's Cup can be held in, should not have favoured the draggy hull of the black boat, with its hula and long keel.

On the first beat Alinghi got ahead by being on the left side of the course where there seemed to be better pressure. Yet NZL82 did not seem off the pace. On the second leg downwind NZL seemed to be going faster, but they had broken away taking the favoured right side of the course.

Equally after Saturday's demolition derby, Team New Zealand must be wiser about how to handle brisk conditions and the short sharp chop that can develop on the race course in strong winds with a large spectator boat present (saying this Tom Schnackenberg made the comment that a large spectator boat presence to weather can actually act as a wind and wave break). NZL82 is supposed to be optimised for the 12-20 knot range and we wait with baited breath for these conditions to prevail. If Mike Broughton's forecast is correct then we should be in for 12-17 knots from the north northwest tomorrow (Tuesday) - perfect for the black boat.

So we are still left with a situation where this America's Cup is a contest of boat speed versus match race cunning. Team New Zealand have the radical boat which we believe is generally a shade faster while Alinghi have what must be the world's most experienced match racing crew. This is not to say Team New Zealand are not highly skilled, just that as one commentator observed about Alinghi's crew: "I look at the relationship between Russell Coutts and his mainsheet trimmer and his genoa trimmer, they have been trimming the rudder blade, the mainsail and the genoa in unison for 10 years now across four Americas’ Cup campaigns".

Yesterday certainly proved that Coutts is the master of the match race, yet this is another interesting aspect of this particular America's Cup. Match racing is vaguely like chess in as much as skippers have characteristics in their offensives and counter-offensives. Having both sailed with and against each other for so long at Team New Zealand, few skippers can be so aware of each other's styles as Coutts and Barker - thus making the contest all the harder.

Yet now, being 2-zip down, racing a million dollar boat with a multi-million dollar war chest behind him, with his entire country following his every move, Kiwi jobs and the country's economic well being resting on his shoulders - all of this must be having some sort of effect on Dean Barker. Does he have the maturity to pull back from the brink?

Tomorrow's racing will reveal all...

America's Cup racing this week continues on Tuesday and Thursday with two more races at the weekend.