3.30pm
Alinghi of Switzerland capitalised on their crew's intimate knowledge of the Hauraki Gulf today to sail to a comprehensive win and 1-0 lead over Oracle BMW Racing in the America's Cup challenger series.
Alinghi beat the San Francisco challenge by one minute 24 seconds in a one-sided race in 7-16 knot winds that shifted between north-east and north-north-east. The seas were choppy with swell leftover from the storm that had lashed Auckland for the past two days.
The first team to win five races will secure the Louis Vuitton Cup and sail against Team New Zealand for the America's Cup next month.
New Zealander Brad Butterworth played a pivotal role in the win, which came after Oracle had dominated the pre-start manouevring and crossed marginally ahead at the favoured pin-end of the start line.
Almost immediately Alinghi tacked away, and it was just minutes later that Butterworth could be heard through the on-board microphones urging his crew to protect the right side of the course.
Their positioning paid off, and a large wind shift helped propel Alinghi clear by six boat lengths mid-way up the first beat.
By the first mark Alinghi, skippered by Butterworth's former Team New Zealand crewmate Russell Coutts, were ahead by 47 seconds.
Chris Dickson, skippering Oracle and with his billionaire boss Larry Ellison perched on the back as 17th man, tried to close down Alinghi on the first run.
However with the boats separated by 500m, it was again the Swiss who gained an advantage from a wind shift to clear away from Oracle.
Alinghi simply covered Oracle from then on, to maintain a comfortable lead and secure the vital first point.
After the race Butterworth could be heard commending the Swiss boat's strength on the first run, while other crew acknowledged the benefit of picking the wind shifts correctly.
Alinghi strategist Jochen Schuemann said the Swiss were pleased with the point, but it was a difficult day to judge whether boat speed or the shifting winds handed them the win.
"I think the boat speed issue is always there, but it was not a good day to figure that out.
"The boats are still reasonably close. The breeze helped us a lot, there was a rotation to the right and that helped us.
"We're all happy, we achieved the first win again and that puts the pressure on Oracle."
Alinghi beat Oracle 4-0 in last month's semi-finals and now has a 6-1 winning record in races against them.
- HERALD STAFF
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Alinghi untroubled in win
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