KEY POINTS:
The pendulum has swung back the other way a bit. Alinghi had a hot day yesterday - they looked fast.
Even though the winning margin was 30 seconds it was a comfortable 30 seconds and Alinghi never really looked at risk of being beaten.
Upwind, they were more
than comfortable against Emirates Team New Zealand.
The Kiwis didn't really make any mistakes but they never really had a sniff of winning.
They made a slight error off the line but it was very slight in that the bow didn't come off the line fast enough.
After that, they didn't have enough speed to put Alinghi under serious pressure.
I am not sure that had it been the other way around Alinghi could have sailed around the Kiwis.
The prestart was pretty passive. The Kiwis appeared to want the left. They got the left and Alinghi got the right. That has been a bit of a pattern.
Going into the last 30 seconds of the prestart the New Zealanders looked quite strong and were leading back.
But in the last crucial three or four seconds Alinghi got their bow up faster than Team New Zealand and jumped over the line. It also looked as though they got a bit of right-hand pressure as well.
They went all the way to the port lay line. To live in that windward position all the way to the layline indicates they had a slight speed edge.
Then Alinghi tacked and the New Zealanders were forced to follow in. That was probably the match over.
On the downwind legs it looked as though Alinghi wanted to sail a slightly different angle to the Kiwis, who always seemed to be a bit more bow down.
That could be a function of their sails or it could be a function of the boat being a bit narrower so it can sail a bit deeper.
Despite the differences, the two boats' performances downwind was similar. Alinghi sailed some smart match-racing to make it difficult for Team New Zealand.
It looks as though the two teams are going to bang away at each other. At some stage something will happen, such as a vital mistake or a lead change, and it will be the deal-breaker. It could be tonight, or tomorrow. There are more twists yet to come.