Oracle get welcome break

By JULIE ASH

Today's lay day could not have come at a better time for Chris Dickson's Oracle BMW Racing, who are struggling to find a way to halt the charge by Russell Coutts' Alinghi team to challenge for the America's Cup.

Beaten by 40s yesterday, Oracle find themselves 2-0 down in the best-of-nine series.

The break gives both teams time to reflect and improve before race three tomorrow.

While Oracle may have been unlucky in the first match which was dictated by wind shifts, they were simply outclassed yesterday by Alinghi, who sailed faster upwind and defended tenaciously downwind.

Alinghi's upwind strength was obvious on the first beat as they sailed higher and faster.

With Oracle's boat seemingly slower out of tacks and struggling in the choppy conditions, the potent upwind speed of Alinghi was the matchwinner.

By the first mark they were well advanced on their American rivals, enjoying a lead of four boat-lengths.

Oracle closed the gap towards the second mark, but fluffed a spinnaker drop which saw the spinnaker pole and spinnaker in the water.

From there, there was no way back for Oracle as Alinghi blocked their every move.

When asked if he thought Oracle could have caught them had their pole not smashed, Coutts replied: "It would have been a long shot ... I don't think so."

However, he was concerned with Oracle's strength downwind.

"They made a gain on us and that is something we will have to look at. I believe Oracle could be a little faster than us downwind.

"I think in both races we have been able to capitalise on a small advantage and make it into a big advantage."

Down 2-0, it is going to be a hard road back for Oracle.

"We are planning on doing a bit of work [today]," Oracle navigator Ian Burns said.

"In terms of the sailing it is pretty much the same tempo and outlook every day. But the real trick is to keep the guys confident so if we do get behind, they can believe we can fight back.

"To date that hasn't been a problem, but as the round goes on it will become a bit more difficult if we don't win a few races."

"We are pretty confident that we will improve some things that need to be improved, and in the next race we will be confident we'll be able to take it right up to these guys."

In terms of boatspeed, Burns still believes there is little between the two.

"I think the time around the course is pretty similar, they are a bit faster up and we are a bit faster down.

"If we do get in front on them we might be able to stretch away.

"We have changed a lot of things through the course of the regatta. We believe that the boat is going faster now than it has done."

Alinghi crew member Murray Jones said the team had a good first beat which had given them some breathing space.

"After that we just sailed fairly conservatively and tried to keep the distance [between the boats] reasonable," he said.

"We're pretty happy at the way things are going."

While Alinghi were always comfortable in winning, he did not think there was much between the two boats.

Coutts has now beaten Dickson six out of seven times in this regatta.

"We have two good results ... two results we wanted, so I think so far so good," Coutts said.

"I am very happy with our boat so far."

Race three tomorrow starts at 1.15 pm.

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