Penalties prove costly in Louis Vuitton Cup quarter finals

7.00pm

A penalty proved crucial as Oracle went 1-0 over OneWorld on the Hauraki Gulf today in the pairing widely expected to provide the closest racing of the first quarter final phase of the America's Cup challenger yachting series.

OneWorld led at the second, third and fourth marks, although by no more than 11 seconds, and fell behind when they carried out a penalty turn on the fifth leg upwind.

At the end Oracle were 12sec ahead of OneWorld, who were using their boat USA-65 for the first time in the Louis Vuitton Cup.

The penalty had been awarded on the second leg downwind after OneWorld had closed on Oracle, who at one point of the leg had been more than 100m ahead.

OneWorld appeared to infringe when, trailing by less than a boat length, they gybed into a position where they failed to give San Francisco-based Oracle sufficient room and opportunity to keep clear.

After yesterday's racing in the best-of-seven Louis Vuitton Cup quarterfinals had been abandoned because winds were too strong, today's matches started one hour 45 minutes late due to a lack of breeze.

But southerlies of around 15 to 19 knots later provided for good racing.

In another race where a penalty turn appeared to be critical to the outcome, GBR Challenge of Britain won by 1min over Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes, racing their boat USA-77 for the first time in the challenger series after repairing damage it received when sinking off California.

Stars and Stripes infringed during prestart manoeuvring, but looked as if they had got themselves out of trouble by the third mark when they led by 55sec.

GBR clawed their back to trail by 31sec at the fifth mark and further reduced the Americans' lead on the final run downwind.

Ahead by only about 100m, Stars and Stripes appeared to try to engage the British, possibly to try to force them into error so they, too, would give away a penalty.

But the GBR boat Wight Lightning was able to slip around the front of USA-77 and take the lead about five minutes from the end.

Prada of Italy were also penalised in their race against the Russell Coutts-skippered Swiss Alinghi team, and by the end Alinghi won by 1min 18sec after Prada completed their penalty turn and dropped their spinnaker in the water.

Alinghi were 10sec up at the first mark after their lead on the first upwind leg was cut when they appeared to get into some trouble and did a double tack when they had looked to be working to consolidate a lead of about four lengths.

It was on the first downwind leg that Prada picked up their penalty, as they surged in on Alinghi from behind and their bow made contact with the leading yacht.

The most conclusive win of the day was the 2min 3sec margin achieved by Sweden's Victory Challenge over Le Defi of France.

- NZPA

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