Light winds and a rather gloomy Friday afternoon couldn’t negate the excitement on the Øresund, as a slow motion race against the clock overtook the spectacle of 12 America’s Cup Class boats fleet racing on the same course.

The American BMW Oracle Racing team won its race against time in the first match, but Alinghi wasn’t so lucky in the second race. Light, shifty conditions, with streaks of wind interspersed with very light patches saw a race course that must have appeared more like a minefield to the tacticians and strategists.

Racing started in eight knots of wind, but the breeze dropped to near nothing over the course of the first race.

The final leg of that first contest became a race against the clock for the leaders, BMW Oracle Racing, who had to beat the leg time limit of 40-minutes to make the race stand.

According to Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio, the Race Committee was timing the boats from the offset mark and the American team just squeezed in ahead of the rapidly expiring time limit.

For the start of the second contest, the wind was up again, with the fleet starting in close to seven knots of wind. But as with the first race, the breeze eased off over the course of the match, with the leading boat, Alinghi, feeling the sense of urgency that engulfed the American team in the first race.

The Swiss weren’t so fortunate however as time expired with Alinghi adrift, less than 200 metres from the finishing line.