After more than 30 months of fighting in the courts, this Deed of Gift America's Cup series at last turned from being a legal battle to a battle on the water off Spain's Valencia coast between the defender Ernesto Bertarelli's gossamer spider catamaran Alinghi and Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle heavier trimaran with her giant rigid wing sail USA-17 .
There was a lot of pre-race speculation whether two 90 foot multihulls would risk match racing at the start.
They did with doubly sensational results. Coming in from the favoured starboard side, the very experienced match racing skipper James Spithill on the BMW Oracle racer forced Alinghi away. Protest flag on BMW Oracle - Alinghi did not keep clear. A 270 Penalty turn was now outstanding on the Swiss boat.
It was a classic match racing dial up ahead of the start line. The two boats sat motionless, Alinghi was first to peel back towards the start line and she started just a few seconds late. Sensationally BMW Oracle sat stalled ahead of the start line, eventually she staggered back and crossed the line almost a minute behind the Swiss boat who by then had a 660 metre lead.
Ellison's USA-17 trimaran looked to be sailing higher than the Alinghi catamaran as she chewed into her rival's lead, the distance between them was soon less than 400 metres. Up the course the breeze was building and was up to eight knots at the top mark.
BMW Oracle was sailing faster and higher on the left; she hit the lead five miles up the first leg. By the six mile mark, she had made up that massive start line loss and she had sailed 400 metres ahead of her rival.
BMW Oracle had taken down her headsail; she was sailing faster and higher than the Swiss boat. She seemed to be consistently 2-3 degrees higher.
Over on the right, Alinghi began to chew into the lead for a little, it dropped down to 130 metres but BMW Oracle came back and pushed her lead out to 200 metres and she began extending away; 300, 400, 500, 600, then by 700 metres.
Behind her, Bertarelli's Alinghi had a penalty outstanding.
The breeze was settled 165 at 8 knots at the top mark and mid course it was 170 at 9 knots.
Alinghi tacked, BMW Oracle continued in good pressure for almost a couple of minutes before she tacked.
Two thirds of the way up the first leg BMW Oracle had extended her lead to 900 metres, and then she quickly leapt into a 1200 metre lead.
As the wind lightened BMW Oracle hoisted a jib. Up ahead at the top mark the breeze had swung a little left, at seven knots.
BMW Oracle tacked onto the port lay line heading for the top mark, more than 1400 metre ahead of the Swiss catamaran. Going into the top mark, Alinghi was not flying a hull (as she headed for the top mark). A very interesting down wind leg was expected with the lighter Alinghi predicted to be faster and be able to go lower; but with a penalty turn to do, she had her work cut out.
The delta at the top mark was three minutes 21 seconds. Alinghi was a long way astern of BMW Oracle, 1600 metres and with a penalty to do as the wind filled in across the course.
BMW Oracle was going fast in the puffs, her lead extended to two kilometres, then 2.5 then 2.75km.
There was excellent helming and excellent crew work on BMW Oracle and she stormed down the run.
Back in the distance Alinghi gybed, barely flying a hull, and was now three kilometres back. She was constantly higher and slower and it was obvious that, in the soft conditions, Alinghi was at a disadvantage.
BMW Oracle was storming down the final leg, at 25 knots. Even though she was still 10 nautical miles from the finish it seemed that she only had to keep her mast and wing mainsail in the boat to win this race.
Alinghi held on, not losing any more ground on the second half of the run.
Perhaps the best line from the race commentary came from British match racer Andy Green - 'The Wing is King'.
An extraordinarily impressive victory by BMW Oracle. She was 3 minutes 21 seconds ahead of the Swiss defender at the top mark and at the finish she was well over eight minutes ahead before the Alinghi crew started their penalty turn. To add insult to injury, Alinghi did not finish correctly. While the delta was just a touch under 10 minutes, it blew right out to fifteen minutes 28 seconds.
This is a first to two win series and the next scheduled race day on Sunday will see BMW Oracle at match point.
The post race coverage from BMW Oracle will begin shortly.
Sail-World will begin its detailed post race analysis over the next four hours.
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