UPDATE - The New Zealand-powered Swiss team are the first to reach the finals of the challenger series for the America's Cup.
Alinghi beat San-Francisco based Oracle BMW by 48 seconds in a shortened 4-leg semifinal race this morning.
The Alinghi team includes skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth, two mainstaysof Team New Zealand's cup victories in 1995 and 2000.
Oracle BMW, skippered by New Zealander Chris Dickson, will now get a second chance to reach the challengers' final, by racing a best-of-seven series against the winner of the other semifinal between the Italian Prada challenge and Seattle's OneWorld.
OneWorld currently leads their series 4-1 after a 58-second win this morning and a massive win by 2m 32s this afternoon in a race that saw Prada knocked back by a disastrous spinnaker drop.
OneWorld must win five races, however, after being assessed a one-point penalty for possessing other teams' design information.
The semifinals were originally set to end today but racing was abandoned on Friday, Saturday and Sunday due to high winds. With the semifinal repechage set to begin on Friday, the race committee decided to shorten the remaining semifinal races from six legs to four in order to be able to hold two races per day in each series.
