Dickson on top in NZ square-off

By JULIE ASH

Chris Dickson pegged one back on long-time rival Russell Coutts yesterday in the battle of the New Zealand titans when Oracle BMW Racing pulled off a stunning 4s win over Alinghi in another action-packed day on the Hauraki Gulf.

The last time the two New Zealanders met was in the semifinals of the 1995 challenger series of San Diego when Dickson's Tag Heuer was no match for Coutts and Team New Zealand.

They won by 1m 28s, then went on to beat Dennis Conner and Young America to win the America's Cup.

But yesterday the scores were reversed when Oracle, skippered by Dickson, edged past Alinghi in the last leg, handing them their first loss in the second round.

After scoring an important win over OneWorld the day before, Oracle, with Peter Holmberg at the helm, controlled the starboard advantage at the beginning of the pre-start manoeuvres before a series of aggressive circles resulted in an even start.

One of Alinghi's winches jammed, which limited their options and helped Oracle gain the favoured leeward position and accelerate hard off the line.

Showing plenty of speed up the first leg, USA-76 forced Alinghi to tack away, giving them a narrow advantage which they extended into a 25-second lead at the first mark.

With Coutts at the helm, Alinghi attacked hard downwind but Oracle rounded the second mark 17s ahead.

The Swiss found some breeze on the second beat and rounded the final mark only eight seconds behind the Americans.

With a near-perfect bear away set of the spinnakers from both teams at the top mark, Alinghi were initially in the favoured position and sailed above USA76 stealing the wind.

But Oracle held Alinghi to the port layline, and prevented them from gybing.

As the layline approached, USA-76 were the first to gybe and regained the lead by one boat length.

Despite plenty of protests which were all green-flagged, USA76 defended their lead and crossed the finish line four seconds ahead.

Alinghi strategist Jochen Schuemann said it was a great race and Oracle sailed well.

"It was a close race. When you are behind is it hard to come back."

Oracle afterguard member Ian Burns said that for most of the race his team had to "defend, defend, defend".

Asked about the impact Dickson has made, Burns said: "As far as calling the shots I think he has probably put a bit more icing on the cake, but the cake was pretty good previously. We have got a pretty strong team on the back of our boat."

Burns believes some teams have slowed down in the second round.

"I believe OneWorld has slowed down compared to their first-round performance.

"I don't know if they have changed anything or if the rest of the fleet have sped up. I think they have struggled in some races that in the first round they took very easy. I think the rest of the fleet are the same or better."

Although there is a long rivalry between Coutts and Dickson, Schuemann and Burns said their teams approached the race as they would any other match.

"All of us have a lot of history against each other," said Schuemann. "But this event goes far above personal rivalries in the past."

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