Following the passage of a violent storm and associated high winds through Saturday night (11th September), the racing boats of BMW Oracle Racing, Team Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand were blown off their cradles and are lying on their sides on the J-4 pier.

The incident took place at 02:40, early on Sunday morning. There were no injuries, only the boats have been damaged. Gusts of over 65 knots of wind were measured at the time of the incident. The three damaged boats were the most exposed to the prevailing wind direction.

The three others, K-Challenge, Le Défi and Team Shosholoza, suffered no apparent damage.

Team New Zealand's boat suffered the most serious damage, possibly preventing it from competing in a pre-regatta in Valencia next month, race organisers said.

"All the teams want to participate in the next Act in Valencia", said Michel Bonnefous, CEO of AC Management. "But of course they still have to assess the damage, and only they can tell you about their plans moving forward".

Unlike BMW Oracle Racing and Alinghi, Team New Zealand does not have a second boat already on site in Valencia.

Team general manager Grant Dalton said damage was extensive and the yacht would be shipped to its home port of Auckland for repairs. Team New Zealand has two other boats which are being modified in Auckland and which will allow the former Cup holder to continue a summer sailing program.

"We are fortunate to have NZL 81 and GER 68 nearing completion in Auckland so we can still have a full testing program over the New Zealand summer," Dalton said in a statement Monday. "NZL82 was to retire after the Valencia regatta".

"The test program was to start in early December. Now we will advance the program by several weeks and we expect no adverse impact on the team's development program."

BMW Oracle and Alinghi both have their other 2003 generation boats in Europe. BMW has been training this summer with USA-71 in Valencia, so she probably can be ready to go very quickly.

"We have second boat", said Chris Dickson, skipper and CEO of BMW Oracle Racing. "We're fortunate that ours is in Valencia. It will take us a week or ten days to get that boat race ready, but we hope in a week or ten days to be sailing USA-71 and to be ready for the Valencia Louis Vuitton Act".

"Our second boat is an option", explained Alinghi's Grant Simmer. "But at the moment our preferred option is to look at repairing SUI-64 over the next couple of weeks".

"We'll make that decision once we're in the shed in Valencia. The other boat hasn't sailed since Auckland. It's completely stripped and there's several issues relating to using that boat...to get that boat ready is a major exercise. But one way or another we'll be there on the starting line in Valencia".

For the second consecutive weekend hundreds of boats gathered on the Rade Sud off Marseille to celebrate the America's Cup at the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act.

One final flight of races was scheduled on Saturday, to complete the opening Act of the 32nd America's Cup. The American BMW Oracle Racing team had wrapped up a series win on Friday afternoon after an impressive week of results, but every other place on the points table was up for grabs on Saturday.

The big winner of the day was the French Le Défi team, which defeated Team Shosholoza to vault into a tie for fourth place with K-Challenge. Le Défi had previously beaten its French rival when they lined up earlier in the week, and thus becomes the fourth place finisher, ahead of K-Challenge and South Africa's Shosholoza.

At the top of the leaderboard, BMW ORACLE with first place assured could afford to lose its match to Alinghi on Saturday, and that's exactly what happened. Team Alinghi finishes in second place overall, while Emirates Team New Zealand finished the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act in third position.

None of the top three teams earned the full amount of points on offer in the match racing segment of the event, with each losing one match to one of the others. BMW Oracle won this event by dominating three of the four fleet races, leaving Alinghi with just one fleet race victory, and Emirates Team New Zealand with none.

With the conclusion of Act 1, attention now shifts to Valencia, Spain, the Host City of the 32nd America's Cup. The Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 2 begins on the 5th of October, while the 2004 racing calendar ends with Act 3 in Valencia from the 14th to 17th of October.

Flight 5 :

Le Défi (FRA 69) def. Team Shosholoza (RSA 48) - 3'17''
Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 82) def. K-Challenge (FRA 57) - 0'37''
Alinghi (SUI 64) def. BMW Oracle Racing (USA 76) - 0'15''

Emirates Team New Zealand won its match over Team Alinghi at the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act today, gaining a small measure of revenge for their 31st America's Cup defeat.

In March, 2003, Alinghi won its fifth consecutive race to sweep the America's Cup from New Zealand, and bring the Auld Mug to Europe. The loss to Emirates Team New Zealand could hurt Team Alinghi on the final standings here, as the Kiwis closed to within four points of the Swiss team.

At the top of the points table, the two wins for the BMW Oracle Racing team today assured it of winning the opening Act of the 32nd America's Cup. Larry Ellison's team is clearly on a roll, winning two exhibition events in the United States, and now the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act, since bowing out to Alinghi in the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup Final.

Conditions were lighter on the Rade Sud for the first flight on Friday, with racing starting in an 8 to 10 knot Southeasterly breeze. During the first matches, the wind eased further, and patches of pressure streaked across the race course, making for a tricky day for the tacticians.

The Race Committee again scheduled a two lap course, with two mile legs, keeping the races short and the boats close. For the second flight, the wind was up to 12 to 14 knots.

There were two interesting matches on offer in the the first Flight on Friday, including the match of the day between Team Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand.

The second pair to start in Flight One included the two French teams, K-Challenge and Le Défi. Skipper Philippe Presti, on FRA 69 sailed a strong pre-start, and led Thierry Peponnet, steering K-Challenge, across the start line by five seconds.

Presti converted this early advantage into a lead at the top mark, and Le Défi was only threatened badly on the final run to the finish when its spinnaker exploded again. But a replacement was quickly hoisted, and Le Défi earned an important victory in the battle of the French teams.

In the third match of the first Flight, Team Shosholoza led the BMW Oracle team across the start line by five-seconds, but was no match for the experienced American team, trailing at every mark, and finishing 4:05 in arrears.

Flight 3

Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 82) def. Alinghi (SUI 64) - 0'13"
Le Défi (FRA 69) def. K-Challenge (FRA 57) - 0'30''
BMW Oracle Racing (USA 76) def. Team Shosholoza (RSA 48) - 4'05''

Flight 4

Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 82) def. Le Défi (FRA 69) - 2'30"
Alinghi (SUI 64) def. Team Shosholoza (RSA 48) - 3'33"
BMW Oracle Racing (USA 76) def. K-Challenge (FRA 57) - 1'32"

The Marseille Louis Vuitton Act resumed on Thursday with the match racing phase of the event.

After a couple of short postponements due to the shifting wind, racing began in light to moderate 8 to 11 knot Southerly, ideal conditions for America's Cup Class match racing. The Race Committee scheduled a two lap course, with two mile legs, ensuring short and sharp matches, with plenty of action.

The first Flight offered up two intriguing matches, as K-Challenge met Team Shosholoza and Emirates Team New Zealand faced BMW Oracle Racing. The South Africans sailed a brilliant pre-start in their match to earn an early advantage over K-Challenge.

With both teams needing to kill time on their approach to the start line, K-Challenge luffed Shosholoza and both boats stalled head to wind. But Geoff Meek, at the helm of RSA-48, was able to recover quickly, and sail away as the start gun fired, while the French boat remained completely stalled.

By the time the crew on K-Challenge got the 25-tonne machine moving again, Shosholoza was off to an eight-boatlength lead. After the first lap of the course, with K-Challenge closing fast, RSA-48 stalled out on their leeward mark rounding. K-Challenge passed through gate just behind, and made the pass on the upwind leg.

The French team gained nearly 30-seconds on each leg of the course, en route to a 1:06 win.

In the third match of the first Flight, Team Alinghi sailed a safe, conservative race against Le Défi, and was never threatened by the French team. The Defender of the America's Cup won convincingly by a 3:28 margin.

For the second Flight, the top three teams were paired against the bottom three teams on the points table, and while the results may have been predictable there were some interesting moments along the way.

In its start against Emirates Team New Zealand, the South Africans were assessed a penalty for not keeping clear during the second dial-up. The K-Challenge team was again beaten on the start when Alinghi's Peter Holmberg threw a hard luff at the French team, and FRA-57 stalled head to wind for the second consecutive start while the Swiss roared across the line.

Perhaps the most surprising moments came in the final match of the day, as BMW Oracle's afterguard member Bertrand Pacé took the helm for the race against Le Défi.

In what had the potential to be a huge upset, Le Défi sailed a strong pre-start, and used that lift to lead the Americans around the first lap of the course. But in the end, the speed and extended training time of Chris Dickson's squad took over, and BMW Oracle recovered to win the race handily.

Flight 1 :

K-Challenge (FRA 57) def. Team Shosholoza (RSA 48) - 1'04"
BMW Oracle Racing (USA 76) def. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 82) - 0'42"
Team Alinghi (SUI 64) def. Le Défi (FRA 69) - 3'28''

Flight 2 :

Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 82) def. Team Shosholoza (RSA 48) - 2'59''
Team Alinghi (SUI 64) def. K-Challenge (FRA 57) - 1'01''
BMW Oracle Racing (USA 76) def. Le Défi (FRA 69) - 1'55''