A duel between top dogs

By JULIE ASH

When Harold Bennett, assistant general manager of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, coached Russell Coutts and Chris Dickson in their younger days, he always knew the pair would go far.

He was right. Coutts is the most successful sailor of the past two decades. He won an Olympic Finn gold medal in 1984, the America's Cup with Team New Zealand in 1995, and defended it in 2000.

Dickson has skippered three America's Cup teams, is a three-time world matchracing champion, and a triple world maxi-yacht champion.

"But never in my wildest dreams did I think I would see them out there racing against each other in the challenger series," Bennett said.

The much-awaited semifinal between Coutts' Alinghi and Dickson's Oracle BMW Racing, starting on Monday, pitches two big-budget and well-oiled campaigns against each other.

Oracle and Alinghi met twice in round-robin racing - Alinghi won the first encounter by 1m 43s, and Oracle the second, by 4s.

Alinghi finished top of the table after the double round-robin and chose to race Prada in the quarter-finals, who they beat easily 4-0.

Second-placed Oracle also had no trouble in advancing, beating OneWorld 4-0.

In terms of boat speed, both perform well in a range of conditions.

Oracle's USA76, with less sail area, struggled in light air to begin with, but the designers seem to have ironed out the problem and now the boat is better.

But unlike OneWorld, who have switched between yachts during the competition, both Alinghi and Oracle still have a weapon to unleash, although Coutts has said they will definitely stay with SUI64.

While little is known about Oracle's USA71, the rumour is that Alinghi's SUI75 is the better of their two boats and is more suited to light conditions.

The crew work of both teams is slick. For Oracle, world matchracing champion Peter Holmberg has been a success as starting helmsman, showing plenty of aggression.

But Coutts and his tactician Brad Butterworth know the Hauraki Gulf intimately and it is anyone's guess who will be in the right place at the right time and take early advantage.

It will also be interesting to see what happens if Alinghi unsettle Oracle.

Oracle have won their last 11 races since the return of Chris Dickson, but how will the team and Dickson cope if Alinghi go 3-0 up?

The winner of the best-of-seven series will advance to the final, starting on January 11. The loser will race the winner from the other semifinal between Prada and OneWorld in the semifinal repechage, which starts on December 20.

While Oracle have improved and developed tremendously, the smart money is on Alinghi.

For OneWorld and Prada there is more urgency as the loser faces elimination.

Both sides made light work of their opponents in the quarter-final repechages, OneWorld beating Team Dennis Conner 4-0 and Prada dealing to Victory by the same score.

OneWorld have the sharpest crew work by far, which comes after endless hours on the gulf and the fact they have a handful of experienced former Team New Zealand sailors in their ranks.

OneWorld beat Prada by convincing margins in round one and two.

And if they need some extra motivation to beat Prada, they just have to remember the Italians are one of the two teams that have accused them of using other teams' design information and have asked the America's Cup arbitration panel to throw them out of the competition.

There will be no love lost there.

If OneWorld can continue developing their Laurie Davidson-designed boats, they have a strong chance of advancing to the final.

But for Prada this could be ciao.

The defending Louis Vuitton Cup holders have done a tremendous amount of work on their two boats. But it could be too much, too late.

Without doubt, OneWorld and Prada are very good teams - but only one can survive.

The question is, who?

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