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Swiss syndicate Alinghi's mettle will now be tested, says former America's Cup sailor Paul Cayard.
The defender's loss to Team New Zealand today and on Monday in Valencia is new territory for the Swiss.
Not only was Monday's their first loss to Team New Zealand in seven America's
Cup races but the Swiss may also be coming to grips with the reality that their boat SUI100 is not as devastatingly fast as they thought it would be.
It is fast but, as Team New Zealand's Barry McKay pointed out, "it is not a rocket".
There have also been suggestions of tension between Alinghi helmsman Ed Baird and skipper Brad Butterworth.
Cayard, who helped Il Moro di Venezia take a race off America3 in the 1992 America's Cup battle, said it will be interesting to see how the Swiss respond to a bit of pressure.
"Will the loss cause some reconsiderations within Alinghi? For sure, being the defender and being such heavy favourites is not helping when the momentum starts to go in the opposite direction. This will test the experience of the Swiss."
The loss also ended the 16 cup-race winning streak for the five Kiwis on Alinghi - Butterworth, Simon Daubney, Murray Jones, Warwick Fleury and Dean Phipps. The five were with Team New Zealand in 1995 and 2000 and Alinghi in 2003.
Cayard said the conditions in race two, which were 9 to 10 knots and a smoother sea, seemed to be better for the flat-bottomed New Zealand boat.
"Everyone was speculating on a 5-0 sweep by Alinghi. Did this get into the heads of the Swiss?"
The weather forecast for the next two days is for 8 to 10 knots. During the challenger series the breeze tended to favour the right. So far in the match it has been less one-dimensional, which is similar to conditions in Valencia this time last year during act 12.
Last year the breeze tended to be stronger on the right at the top mark and stronger at the left at the bottom, which does provide a challenge for the afterguards and weather teams.
So far the Alinghi weather team have been slightly more successful at picking the shifts and pressure than Team New Zealand.
America's Cup Management have met to discuss the problem of spectator chop on the race course.
An angry Butterworth swore vigorously during race two over regatta organisers' control of the spectator boats following SUI100 and NZL92.
Butterworth knew he was being picked up by the on-board microphone linked to the television coverage.
"There's no other vehicle for me to give my impressions across but on that microphone," he said afterwards.
"So it's good to use it because I figured you're listening and you can put some pressure on these wallies to get them off the course."
Butterworth said he was all for spectators being able to get close to the action of yachting's biggest event.
But he expected an even sailing environment and said the fleet should have been made to turn off three-quarters of the way up the first windward leg.
"When you go up the first beat, you don't really notice it, but when you gybe around the top mark, you're aiming straight at the spectator boats and in their wake," he said.
"We were actually gybing in a good shift there and thought we were going to make a big gain. We did make a gain, but it was limited by the way we were in the washing machine."
Team New Zealand runner-pitman Tony Rae agreed that the amount of wash being produced made sailing tough.
Full coverage of the America's Cup from nzherald.co.nz/americascup and desktoptv.co.nz
