America's Cup - Oracle Team USA has end to end win in both ACWS races

by Sail-World.com NZL on 30 Aug 2015 Oracle Team USA led both races from start to finish on day one at the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series in Gothenburg, Sweden.

But despite the unblemished record, the team only has a two point lead over former team mate Ben Ainslie.

'Today was almost like a warm-up,' said skipper Jimmy Spithill. 'It's all about tomorrow when the points are doubled. It's super Sunday. But that being said, I'd rather be in our position. We're sailing well, we're confident, and we'll be ready to go.'

In the first race, Ainslie was fast off the starting line, but ORACLE TEAM USA had the favored inside position to lead at mark one. From there it was a matter of protecting a narrow lead from a hard-changing Ainslie.

'There were a few things we could have done better in that first race. Tom got us started well and picked a few shifts, but we had some boat-handling mistakes and I put my hand up for that...'

If race one was tense, the second contest was a more dominant performance.

'The second one was a really good race. Joey and Kyle were doing a great job on the boat speed and Louis was great on the manouevers and that really allowed Tom to get his head out of the boat and he just nailed it.

'It's nice going into tomorrow seeing the team working so well.'

Louis Vuitton America's Cup Word Series Gothenburg
Results after Day One of racing:

Team - Points

Oracle Team USA - 20
Land Rover BAR - 18
Emirates Team New Zealand - 16
SoftBank Team Japan - 13
Artemis Racing - 12
Groupama Team France - 11

Overall results - Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series
Team - Points

Land Rover BAR - 37
Oracle Team USA - 36
Emirates Team New Zealand - 34
SoftBank Team Japan - 26
Groupama Team France - 24
Artemis Racing - 23