12.30 pm - by JULIE ASH
Seattle-based OneWorld took a 3-1 lead in their semifinal series against defending Louis Vuitton Cup holders Prada this morning.
OneWorld, which must win five races to clinch the best-of-seven series as a result of being assessed a one point penalty for possessing other teams' design information,
beat the Italian challengers by 58 seconds.
The crews of USA-67 and ITA-74 adopted fairly conservative tactics at the start of the shortened 4-leg race.
OneWorld held a narrow 1s lead at the start and edged further ahead on the first beat after gaining the favoured right hand side.
OneWorld rounded the first mark 11s ahead, before extending 6s to lead by 17s at the second mark.
With James Spithill at the helm, OneWorld flew up the last beat rounding the mark 1m 10s ahead before winning by 58s.
The winner of the OneWorld versus Prada series will advance to the semifinal repechage against the Chris Dickson-skippered Oracle BMW which was defeated 4-0 in its semifinal series by the Swiss team Alinghi.
Alinghi became the first team to qualify for the Louis Vuitton Cup final.
Prada and OneWorld will meet in a second race today.
With the past three days' racing postponed due to strong winds, race organisers had no option but to schedule races four and five of the semifinals for today and races six and seven for tomorrow.
If the teams are tied after that then one more race will be sailed to determine the winner.
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