KEY POINTS:
Team New Zealand and Italy's Luna Rossa today moved within touching distance of meeting in next month's America's Cup challengers' yachting final in Valencia.
Both took their latest race in the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals by a comfortable margin to grab a 4-1 lead over their respective opponents and close to within one win of clinching a berth in the final.
Team NZ beat Spain's Desafio Espanol by one minute 49 seconds, but it was the other semifinal that continued to attract the most attention.
Luna Rossa downed American syndicate Oracle Racing by 1min 57sec, after young Australian helmsman James Spithill again won the start against New Zealand counterpart Chris Dickson.
The encounter was virtually decided in an incident-packed pre-start, with Spithill able to inflict two penalties in quick succession on the more experienced Dickson.
The first came when USA98 failed to keep clear of ITA94 as Dickson gybed to try to evade Spithill's clutches.
The second was awarded when the boats, both on port tack, touched as Dickson tried to bear away to build speed.
The penalties, the first of which had to be completed immediately after the start, proved too big a hurdle for Oracle to overcome as Luna Rossa kept a cover on their opponents.
Navigator Peter Isler said Oracle remained upbeat despite their sudden-death situation.
"It's tough to be 4-1 down, but we are not out yet," he said.
"Watch us come back."
Luna Rossa had gone into the semifinal as underdogs and their dominance of their bigger budget rivals in the five races so far has become a major talking point.
Isler said it wasn't a case of anything having gone wrong with the Oracle campaign over the past week.
What had happened was that Luna Rossa's crew was sailing extremely well.
"The series has not come down to boat speed yet," he said. "Luna Rossa are putting on a great show so far. We firmly believe we are capable from a sailing standpoint of matching them."
Team NZ continued to put the hiccup of a surprise defeat to Desafio in race three behind them with a second win in a row.
Desafio skipper Karol Jablonski had the better of the opening exchanges, as rival Dean Barker, targeting the right-hand side of the line, got boxed in late in the pre-start.
Team NZ had to tack away and, by the time they had tacked back to cross the line, ESP97 had gone a couple of lengths in front.
But as the boats went on a long drag on starboard tack, Team NZ gradually pulled ahead.
By the top mark, they had opened out a 35sec cushion and continued to make gains on the three remaining legs.
Strategist Ray Davies said Team NZ's decision to target the right-hand side of the start line paid off even if the Spanish had the early advantage.
"Karol certainly did a good job of not giving us much room to play with at the committee boat end and we had to do two tacks downspeed," he said.
"Once we got going, the initial advantage was well and truly to the Spanish, but the line bias negated a bit of that. The breeze went to the right and we continued to make gains."
Racing continues early tomorrow, followed by a rest day on Tuesday (NZT) if the semifinals remain undecided.
The best-of-nine final begins on June 2.
- NZPA
