Russell Coutts went one up in the battle of arch rival New Zealand skippers as the America's Cup challenger yachting series semifinals got under way on the Hauraki Gulf today.
Coutts and his Swiss Alinghi team were convincing winners in the first race of the first-to-four contest over the Chris Dickson-skipperedOracle team, based in San Francisco.
The Swiss syndicate won by one minute 11 seconds, in southwest winds of around 16 to 20 knots.
The first 10 minutes of the race were even as the boats raced right, then a wind shift to the right, helped the Swiss, who were about 50 metres ahead by the end of the leg.
Alinghi gained from another wind shift on the third leg to be 41secs ahead at the third mark, and were clearly in control from then on.
Despite Alinghi's clear-cut win, grinder John Barnitt said he doubted there had been much between the Swiss boat and Oracle.
His team had managed to stretch out with a windshift on the second beat, after having already gained from a shift during the first leg.
"Today's start was pretty aggressive," he said.
"I'd say it's going to be a real good week of racing."
He was happy with the way the rig on SUI-64 performed after the Swiss had to replace their mast on Sunday after breaking the top off it sailing downwind in 23 knots of wind during training.
The rig now on the boat had been tuned and used in sailing often since the end of the quarterfinals three weeks ago, Barnitt said.
The team had even been able to do a little more fine tuning on it yesterday, despite the winds being too strong for racing.
