Oracle crew draw first blood

By JULIE ASH

In the battle of the titans Oracle BMW Racing drew first blood from Prada on the opening day of the Louis Vuitton challenger series.

The Americans beat Prada, the defending Louis Vuitton Cup champions, by 42s, winning the battle of the big budget campaigns and a vital competition point.

With budgets up around the $200 million mark, the clash between the Italians and Americans was the feature of the first day's racing.

The weather on the course was overcast, with a 10-12 knot southwesterly breeze at the start. The shifty conditions during racing were typical of the Hauraki Gulf.

Sailing ITA74, Rod Davis started at the helm for Prada before skipper Francesco de Angelis took over a few seconds into the race.

Swedish matchracing champion Peter Holmberg was at the Oracle helm.

The pair split tacks off the line with Prada on port at the committee boat end with Oracle on starboard at the pin end. Oracle quickly tacked to port and the battle began.

Oracle stayed inside the Italian yacht and thanks to a lifting breeze, took a small lead over Prada after five minutes.

USA76 led by 15s at the windward mark and although Prada gained on all three downwind legs they could not match the American yacht, designed by Bruce Farr, upwind.

Mr Oracle himself, Larry Ellison, took his place on board as part of the afterguard, but Holmberg was at the helm throughout.

When asked what Ellison does on board, Oracle tactican John Cutler replied: "He sits alongside Peter [Holmberg] and Ian [Burns] so he hears every part of the conversation. He looks around and makes a few comments on what he sees. I think he had a good day today, so it worked out well."

But did he make any decisions? "He suggested we should gybe and I took his advice."

De Angelis said it was a fantastically close race.

"They sailed a very good race. I think that the boats were fairly close ... we just have to tune up a few things."

De Angelis said it was too early to voice opinions on the performances of the other challengers.

Although outnumbered by European teams, all three American teams - OneWorld Challenge, Oracle BMW Racing and Team Dennis Conner - claimed victories and one point yesterday.

OneWorld are still to get on the board, however, because they had a one-point deficit going into the event after the America's Cup arbitration panel ruled they had other teams' design information.

Swiss team Alinghi recorded the only win for Europe, beating French Challenger Le Defi Areva.

Apart from the Oracle and Prada encounter, the most interesting race was GBR Challenge's battle with Team Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes.

After a 15-year absence from the America's Cup, the British made life extremely difficult for the Stars and Stripes crew - who ironically represent the New York Yacht Club, which held the America's Cup for 132 years.

GBR Challenge syndicate head Peter Harrison was delighted his team was able to keep Stars and Stripes on their toes.

"I think with the GBR boat keeping up effectively and more or less on the pace with Stars and Stripes, when you think of the experience and background that team has had and the professionalism, the fact we were so close was great," the British chief said.

"It would have been nice to get the one point, but what we achieved was very encouraging."

In today's racing on Course Romeo, Le Defi Areva face Sweden's Victory Challenge and Mascalzone Latino meet Oracle. On Course Juliet, Alinghi will race OneWorld and Prada face Stars and Stripes.