Fog descended over the East Passage of Narragansett Bay on Friday, making for a difficult day for the Race Committee. After a long postponement waiting for the wind to fill in, Principal Race Officer Dr. Robin Wallace moved the race course to the North side of the Newport Bridge, where the sky was clearer, and the wind was up to 7 – 9 knots.

Alinghi beats BMW Oracle Racing - Delta 0:27 (Pro-Driver Series - Race 10 of 12)

Team Alinghi turned the tables on BMW Oracle today, making a nice pass on the run to vault into the lead midway through the race before covering to earn the victory.

BMW Oracle Racing’s Gavin Brady sailed another strong pre-start, controlling most of the encounters between the two boats. But he was a fraction early when he broke for the line, and Team Alinghi’s Peter Holmberg took advantage, slipping in by the Committee boat, with BMW Oracle fractionally ahead, and in a safe leeward position.

Alinghi tried to stay with BMW Oracle but Holmberg was soon forced to tack, and Brady tacked with him, both boats sailing out to the starboard tack layline. With a helpful right shift, BMW Oracle was able to lead into the first mark, and carried a thin, 12-second lead around the mark.

Alinghi gybed away after rounding the mark and gained nearly 700-metres of separation before BMW Oracle gybed towards the middle of the course. When the boats converged again Alinghi had closed up, but had to cross behind the starboard gybe BMW Oracle boat. Holmberg gybed to leeward, and was in a strong position, preventing Brady from gybing for the mark. BMW Oracle, rather than be forced to sail out to the layline made a violent gybe, rounding up to cross behind the starboard gybe Alinghi, and Holmberg was in the lead.

Alinghi ended up with an eight second lead around the bottom mark, and through a combination of good covering tactics, and favourable shifts, Holmberg held on to win the race.

Alinghi beats BMW Oracle Racing - Delta 0:11 (Owner Series - Race 3 of 4)

This race had to be restarted after the first attempt was abandoned after the start. In the abandoned race start, BMW Oracle helmsman Larry Ellison was called for starting early. But as he attempted to re-start, there was some difficulty with the flag communication system on the Race Committee boat, and the Committee decided moments later to abandon the race.

After having difficulty in each of the Owner-Driver pre-starts, Ernesto Bertarelli elected for a change of strategy in the second attempt at a start. After engaging in the traditional dial-up, Bertarelli bailed out almost immediately with a couple of quick tacks, keeping his boat speed up, and forcing BMW Oracle to lead away into the circling nearly immediately, with Alinghi close behind.

As a result, this was Bertarelli’s strongest pre-start at the helm. Alinghi led back in for the start line, with Ellison’s BMW Oracle boat pushing him towards the line. With both boats early, Bertarelli was able to luff up to protect his position and kill time. Ellison eventually elected to tack, and the boats split at the start, BMW Oracle at the Committee Boat, and Alinghi at the pin.

Ellison came of the line with more speed, and with starboard tack advantage he was able to protect the right side of the race course. BMW Oracle appeared to be leading but in the fog, overstood the port tack layline. Alinghi charged in on starboard, and was able to tack inside, and round the mark ahead. Bertarelli protected his narrow lead the rest of the way to win on a shortened course.