The French Areva Challenge beat Desafío Español in their match on a day that saw just one flight of racing completed.

After a postponement, Flight Seven got underway just after 1530 hours, when the breeze finally built from its fickle 5 knots to a much more useable 10 knots.

Perhaps aware of the limitations of the seven-year-old boat FRA 60, Thierry Peponnet onboard Areva engaged in close-quarters combat with the Spanish. Close to the Race Committee boat and just seconds before the start gun fired, the helmsman on ESP 88, Karol Jablonski, tacked at the French, who then responded by tacking.

However both boats were called early over the line, although Areva was in the far better position to complete a restart. By the time the Spanish had recrossed the line, Areva was already over 100 metres up the course, plus the Umpires pinned a penalty on Desafío for tacking too close to FRA 60 in those final seconds before the start gun.

The French boat maintained a healthy lead over Spain until the top of the final beat, when Jablonski’s crew had pulled the green boat back to just a 12-second deficit at the final turning mark. However the French held their nerve to cross the line first, and by the time Desafío Español had unwound the start-line penalt

y at the finish, the winning margin had grown to 46 seconds. Another old boat, ITA 59, nearly caused an upset when +39 Challenge won the start against Emirates Team New Zealand’s brand new boat.

Using the better wind on the right, Iain Percy maintained a tenuous lead over Dean Barker for the first leg, but on the downwind leg the Kiwis pounced. Using superior boatspeed NZL 84 rolled over the top of ITA 59, with Percy luffing his boat wildly in a bid to pin a penalty on the faster boat.

It was to no avail, however, and when the Italians broke a jib up the final beat there was little hope of coming back at the Kiwis. However, by the finish the determined +39 crew had held the losing margin to just 28 seconds. Not a defeat for the Kiwis, but certainly a closer margin than they would have liked.

A 42-second winning margin is probably not as much as Luna Rossa might have expected against Shosholoza, although the Italians were never seriously troubled after the South Africans were a little late off the start line.

BMW Oracle Racing took the fight to Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team in the pre-start. With Chris Dickson outmanoeuvring Jes Gram-Hansen, the innovative new American boat raced back to the line to start as the gun fired, while the red Italian boat was already 26 seconds behind. The rest of the race was a formality for the as yet unbeaten BMW Oracle.

As with the Franco-Spanish battle, both Victory and China Team were slightly early over the start line. But with the Swedes beating China back to the restart, this too was a one-sided affair, the Swedish boat coming home almost two and a half minutes in front.

Alinghi won the right-hand side of the start line against United Internet Team Germany and used superior boatspeed to secure this match without breaking a sweat.

Flight 7 Results

Team Germany lost to Alinghi (1'12")
Shosholoza lost to Luna Rossa (0'42")
Desafío Español lost to Areva Challenge (1'20")
BMW Oracle def. Mascalzone (1'30")
Team NZ def. +39 Challenge (0'28")
Victory Challenge def. China Team (2'26")