4.30pm
A desperate OneWorld team dented their hopes of beating Oracle in their America's Cup challenger series match on the Hauraki Gulf today by making two serious mistakes before the race even started.
In the end San Francisco-based Oracle won their third race in a row in the first-to-four semifinal repechage.
The winning
margin was 55 seconds and that included a penalty turn OneWorld carried out after crossing the finish.
They initially crossed the finish about 23sec behind.
The first mistake by the OneWorld crew came during the pre-start manoeuvres when, as the windward boat, they failed to keep clear of Oracle as they were required to do. The umpires penalised OneWorld which meant they had to complete a 360-degree turn and cross the finish line again at the end of the race.
At the start of the race the Seattle-based OneWorld boat charged at the line ahead of Oracle but crossed it fractionally too soon and had to go back and start again.
Despite that, in shifty south to southwest winds that ranged between seven and 16 knots, OneWorld caught up Oracle two-thirds of the way through the first leg.
But they were picking up disturbed air from Oracle and had to tack away and were unable to catch the San Francisco boat again.
OneWorld came within 8sec of the Chris Dickson-skippered Oracle by the end of the first downwind leg, but they were unable to continue putting the pressure on up the next upwind leg.
Today's result means Oracle need just one more win to go through to the Louis Vuitton Cup final against Switzerland's Alinghi. OneWorld have yet to win in this repechage round of the semifinal.
- NZPA
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
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