5.55pm
The San Francisco-based Oracle team won the first race in the semifinal repechage in the America's Cup challenger yachting series on the Hauraki Gulf here today.
Oracle beat Seattle's OneWorld by four minutes eight seconds.
The critical moment of the race came on the first leg after OneWorld, with James Spithill at the helm of USA-67, had the better of the start and gained the left side of the course, which both boats had wanted.
Shortly into the leg OneWorld crossed in front of Oracle and went out to the right while Oracle went left.
It proved a fatal error by OneWorld, as with better pressure on the left, in seven to 10 knot northerlies, Oracle managed to pull away to a lead of 49sec at the first mark.
The San Francisco boat was steered by Peter Holmberg at the start and for all legs except the first, where skipper Chris Dickson had the wheel.
On the second upwind leg OneWorld fought back furiously, with about 30 tacks on the leg, to cut Oracle's lead to 25sec.
The third time upwind the Peter Gilmour-skippered Seattle crew followed the same tactics and closed the race up, just following Oracle round the fifth mark, to trail by 10sec.
But downwind towards the finish line, OneWorld gybed right immediately after rounding the mark, while Oracle continued going left until they had opened up a gap of about 700 metres.
As the breeze, which had dropped to below four knots by the end of the race, swung left, Oracle managed to simply glide ahead to win by a margin that was not a fair indication of the intensity in which the match had been raced.
The result means Oracle now lead the first-to-four contest by one point to minus one, as OneWorld went into the round with a penalty for breaking the cup design rules.
- NZPA
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Oracle draws first blood
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