Fisher's View: Finally, a race

6:16 PM Fri 12 Feb 2010 GMT

'Bob Fisher' Daniel Forster

Bob Fisher reviews the first race of the 33rd America's Cup:

Wow - so that was it. Who'd have thought it?

It wasn't exactly over in the blink of an eye, but it might well have been.

There hasn't been anything that one-sided since Dennis Conner decided to use a catamaran to take on Michael Fay's 132-foot monohull in 1988.

Jimmy 'Spitfire' Spithill lived up to the expectations of many when he imposed a penalty on Ernesto Bertarelli, sailing his own catamaran within the first minute of the pre-start, but stalled the BMW Oracle trimaran to such an extent that he trailed by 1:27, or 660 metres across the starting line.

The question on everyone's lips was: 'Could he come back from there?' It was a massive ask in the seven knot breeze, which was the universal choice for Alinghi superiority. But once settled to the task, Spithill and the crew of the trimaran developed two unbeatable traits - they were higher and faster.

Anyone who has been in that position - or suffered at the hands of someone else who has - will know what devastation can be wreaked by the twin assets. It took a little less than ten minutes for the two boats to be level and from then on the challenger didn't miss a beat.

Remorselessly the drubbing was loosed on the defender. The gap between them grew and when the trimaran went around the windward mark, the gap between them was 3:21 - the American boat had gained almost five minutes upwind and the only outstanding question was whether it had enough in hand if Alinghi 5 were the faster boat downwind.
It was an unnecessary question. Spithill always had the centre hull flying clear of the water and BMW Oracle consistently showed higher speed figures. This was one-way traffic; not that Bertarelli and his boys didn't try everything including dumping their water ballast.

As she crossed the finishing line the trimaran was 3,300 metres ahead. Then, as if to compound the felony of her penalty, Alinghi 5's crew failed to finish correctly and had to return to do this properly, turning the final time difference into a massive 15:28.

Harold Bennett deserves praise for delaying the start by four and a half hours so that the southerly breeze could settle sufficiently for racing to be held. No one could complain that the wind was unfair to them; the two boats maintained roughly the same area of the race course with BMW Oracle going the same was as Alinghi on the beat and covering her movements downwind. It would have been all too easy to lose a lead like that, but the wise counsel of John Kostecki prevailed.

What now?

The question is framed on many lips and the answers are offered in profusion.

Sunday may hold the solution, but don't hold your breath. There remains the matters of weather and whether. The weather looks good at this range - another light day after waiting for the southerly to replace the north-easterly - but whether is a multi-faceted affair. I'm not going there until tomorrow.

by Bob Fisher

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Fisher's View: Finally, a race

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