• Match 1 Alinghi SUI 64 defeats Wight Lightning GBR 70 (4’33")

After a close start in a 10 knot South Easterly, Wight Lightning and Alinghi started together with the British boat at the pin end and Coutts‚ boat in the middle of the line. The first beat was a competitive drag race, with GBR 70 showing good speed. The British team was unable to get far enough ahead on the leading starboard tack to cross ahead of Alinghi and Coutts sailed both boats above the layline. Alinghi tacked first, and their inside position allowed the Swiss team to take a 21 second lead around the mark.

Alinghi performed a gybe set, whilst the British team bore away as they hoisted their kite and then gybed. As the breeze continued to clock around, the move cost GBR Challenge as Alinghi were able to reach straight to the leeward mark. Down the second half of the beat Wight Lightning found some better pressure in the middle of the course and cut down Coutts‚ lead.

As the boats rounded the leeward mark, GBR 70 immediately tacked onto port, with Alinghi reacting to cover the British team. However, GBR Challenge found better pressure and established a strong lead over Alinghi, with the Swiss team stuck in a hole. SUI 64 tacked over to move to the left hand side of the course, a move that paid handsomely as the new breeze reached them first.

The breeze continued to swing around to the left, and both boats reached into the mark, with Wight Lightning cutting down the Swiss boat’s lead. On the following run, the British comeback continued, as Harrison’s men cut the deficit by a further 45 seconds.

The final beat saw Coutts use his experience to establish control. He continually covered the British team, tacking on top of GBR 70 to increase his lead. On the final run, GBR Challenge tried a final throw of the dice by splitting to the right hand side of the course but the move made no impression on SUI64. Once Coutts‚ team crossed the line, GBR 70 dropped their asymmetric in order, which gave the victory more of a lopsided appearance than was reality.

Source GBR Challenge

• Match 2 OneWorld USA 67 defeats Stars & Stripes USA 66 (1’21")

The New York Yacht Club’s challenger and her Seattle Yacht Club competition raced on flat seas in winds that never got above nine knots. The southeasterly that powered the racers over the starting line backed steadily throughout the race, blowing from the east and then north, before going northwest at the finish.

Stars & Stripes skipper Ken Read, from Newport, RI, pursued opposing skipper Peter Gilmour from Seattle, WA, aboard OneWorld in the minutes leading up to the start, before starting at speed at the leeward end of the line.

First one boat led and then the other as the fickle breeze puffed, faded and phased though 45 degree shifts either side of the course to the first mark. The Seattle boat cleared away from her competitor half way up the leg to lead by nearly two minutes at the first weather mark.

Stars & Stripes rode one streak of breeze on the spinnaker run to pull within 16 seconds as they turned the mark for the second windward beat but OneWorld covered and extended on most other legs. The New York boat shone again on the last spinnaker run, gaining 3 min. 14 sec.

 Peter Isler - Star and Stripes : "Ken and the crew did a great job at the start. OneWorld wanted the left but we chased them out. After that, it was a lottery with the breeze. OneWorld got some more pressure on the first beat and protected their lead after that. We rode one puff right up to them on the first leeward turning mark but they were able to pull away again."

Source Team Dennis Conner

• Match 3 Oracle BMW Racing USA 76 versus Orn SWE 63

Both team stay undefeated as the race did not take place in the Hauraki bay. American and Sweden challengers will race together at the end of the round robin 1 series.

• Match 4 Luna Rossa ITA 74 versus Mascalzone Latino ITA 72

The match between the two italian teams is posponed.

The Race Committee, after waiting for hours for the wind to build up and stabilize on course Juliet where the match between Luna Rossa ITA 74 and Mascalzone Latino ITA 72 was to take place, decided to cancel the race for the day. Same fate for the match between Oracle and Victory, while the other two races on the calendar were completed regularly. The Italian match is rescheduled to one of the reserve days at the end of the Round Robin.

Source Prada Luna Rossa