Luna Rossa and Team NZ have jumped out to a 3-1 series lead over their opponents at the LV Cup semis.

Match 1 – Luna Rossa beat BMW Oracle Racing (0'23")

Chris Dickson succeeded in avoiding James Spithill’s attempt at aggression in the pre-start, and BMW Oracle Racing rolled off the start line at pace, to the right of the equally quick Luna Rossa.

When USA 98 tacked away, the Italians followed them out to the right, with a slight edge on the Americans. After a long sail out to the right side of the course, Dickson eventually tacked, a move which initiated a long and tiring tacking duel all the way to the starboard layline.

From there the Italians led around the windward mark with a 13 second advantage. Unlike previous races where USA 98 had shown a clear downwind advantage, the Italians kept their rivals at bay and led by 12 seconds at the leeward gate.

However, after a tightly fought match up to this point, Luna Rossa allowed BMW Oracle to break away unchallenged to the left, Torben Grael keeping faith in the right. By the time Dickson tacked back, the separation between the boats was 2700 metres across the race course. Everything would now come down to who found the better wind.

For a time it looked like USA 98 had the advantage to the left but when the boats finally reconvened in the middle of the course, Italy had jumped ahead to a five-boatlength lead.

It was a 29-second delta round the final mark and despite a protracted gybing duel down the last leg BMW Oracle could only close the gap to 23 seconds by the finish.

Match 2 – Team New Zealand beat Desafío Español (0'42")

Karol Jablonski has looked very dangerous in the pre-start, but today Dean Barker gybed inside Desafío Español to seize the right-hand side of the start box.

However, rather than starting on the right, Barker got a hook on the green boat, by slipping his bow under the Spanish transom, forcing Jablonski to tack away towards the Race Committee boat.

The Spanish started downspeed while the Kiwis accelerated off the left-hand end of the line. The New Zealanders sailed a typically tight match against Spain, taking small chunks out of their opposition in a tacking duel up the first beat and leading by 25 seconds at the first mark.

They were never seriously challenged after that, and Emirates Team New Zealand crossed the finish 42 seconds ahead.