US side Oracle won the opening race of the 33rd America’s Cup on Friday against two-time defending champions Alinghi of Switzerland, establishing themselves as favorites to claim sailing’s oldest and most prestigious trophy.
Oracle, backed by US software tycoon Larry Ellison, eased to victory by 15:28 minutes in the first of the best-of-three race series off the Mediterranean port of Valencia.
Oracle’s trimaran overtook Alinghi’s catamaran half-way up the 20 nautical mile (37km) upwind first leg to end up ahead by 3:21 minutes around the top mark.
PHOTO: EPA
It gained speed in the final 20 mile downwind leg — reaching 26 knots (48kph) — to extend its lead and claim the opener by a large margin.
“I always thought if we were able to fly a hull we’d be faster upwind, but I was genuinely surprised,” said Oracle’s Australian helmsman James Spithill who is known for his aggressive tactics.
The US side entered the start area off the port of Valencia with a burst of speed, forcing an early penalty on Alinghi for failing to keep clear.
“We got a penalty on them early on, it is something that we had thought about doing for some time,” Spithill said.
Alinghi, steered by its owner, Swiss biotech tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli, appeared not to have completed their penalty properly at the end of the final leg, adding to its delay in crossing the finish line.
The Swiss side shed some water ballast in the final minutes of the race to try to gain power but were no match for Oracle’s trimaran, whose solid vertical wingspan of 68m is more than twice the length of the wing of a Boeing 747.
“The wing seems to be quite a weapon,” said Bertarelli, before adding his side would do everything it could to win the second race in the best-of-three series — a 39-mile (63km) triangle — slated for today.
“I don’t think we are going to be able to build a wing from now until Sunday, so that is not going to happen. But we have a number of tools that we can use, we have different sails, we’ll see we have a day to think about it,” he said.
Wind speeds can be dramatically different at the top of the giant boats from that at sea level and experts said stronger gusts higher up may have given Oracle, which is three storiess higher than Alinghi, an edge.
“We talked about [building the wing] quite a bit. There was a consensus that that would be the most powerful engine that we could put on the boat so we went ahead and did it,” Ellison said.
The two competing boats are the biggest and fastest entries in the 159-year history of the Cup. They are capable of sailing at three times the speed of the wind.
The America’s Cup has traditionally been run in monohulls but this year for the first time both sides are sailing multihulls in a rare head-to-head duel which came about because they failed to agree on the rules for a conventional regatta involving several teams.
It is also the first time that the competition is being held in a Northern Hemisphere winter, another one of the outcomes of the convoluted legal battle between Alinghi and Oracle.
Alinghi became the first European winner of the America’s Cup in 2003 in what was its first attempt and then succeeded in defending it in Valencia in July 2007, when summertime breezes are stronger and more consistent.
The opening race had originally been scheduled to take place on Monday but was called off due to weak winds which shifted direction frequently.
It was rescheduled for Wednesday but was also postponed because heavy seas posed a danger to the two entries in the race.
Organizers delayed the start of the race on Friday by several hours until winds, which had reached 20 knots in the morning, settled to a steady breeze of between 7 knots to 8 knots, allowing the match to go ahead under sunny skies and a light swell amid cool temperatures.
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