Louis Vuitton Act 12 - Day 10 : Emirates Team New Zealand beat Alinghi in first final

First Division

Emirates Team NZ - Alinghi (first race of final): 1 - 0
Racing got underway in upwards of 15 knots at 1630. In the pre-start, Alinghi had the early advantage entering on starboard, both teams fought for the right, but Emirates Team New Zealand won it by 4 seconds with Alinghi starting to leeward. In an aggressive manoeuvre, Alinghi, heading out to the left, flicked the Kiwis off to the right with a hard luff and fought hard from the left in a tacking dual up the 1st leg to round 9 seconds astern. Downwind, Alinghi reeled them in by a fraction to round just 8 seconds behind at the left hand gate. Alinghi, pushing SUI-75, powered away from the mark on port out to the right, punching through the chop, they held on to the Kiwis, maintaining an 8 second delta at the 2nd windward mark. The Defender chased Emirates Team New Zealand down to the finish, but the Kiwis slipped across the line 17 seconds ahead.

BMW Oracle - Luna Rossa (first race of petit-final): Protest pending
In aggressive pre start tactics Chris Dickson incurs in a penalty for failing to keep clear. Spithill storms the line on the Committee boat end with a boat length lead. Up the beat the two are neck to neck and three fourths of the way up the windward leg the two come to a cross Luna Rossa on starboard, BMW Oracle on port.
As soon as Luna Rossa completes the tack USA87’s bowsprit collides with ITA86’s stern on the port side, close to the runners attachment on the hull. The umpires assign a penalty to Luna Rossa for tacking too close to BMW Oracle, canceling USA-87’s previous one. ITA-86 is forced to withdraw for the damage sustained. Luna Rossa and BMW Oracle have both lodged a protest.

Emirates Team NZ - BMW Oracle (third race of semi-final): 1 - 0
The last semi-final race between the two America´s Cup powerhouses could have gone both ways and at no given time was it possible to clearly bet on one or the other team. The race started with a small advantage of 7 seconds by the New Zealanders who managed to round the top mark 11 seconds ahead after a first leg where the two boats were neck and neck. BMW Oracle was able to close the gap in the first downwind leg and be just 5 seconds behind at the leeward gate, despite a problem with the spinnaker drop. The American team´s crew showed their professional instincts by rapidly cutting off the draggin spinnaker. The second upwind leg as even closer and there was just a 1-second separation at the top mark. The last downwind leg was dramatically close, the Kiwis rolled over BMW Oracle and won by a mere 11 seconds.

Second Division

Team Shosholoza - Desafío Español (third race of semi-final): 0 - 1
Finally, Team shosholoza was not able to create the surspire in the second division and succumbed to a definitely stronger and more confident Spanish team. The prestar was uneventful and both boats started right on time, with Desafío Español going on the right side. This proved to be a very good decision and the Spanish accelerated in the first leg and rounded the top mark 18 seconds ahead to Shosholoza. They even increased their lead in the following two legs and only at the end didshosholoza manage to marginally shrink the gap. The Spanish at no time felt threatened and won by a margin of 34 seconds.

Third Division

Areva Challenge - +39 Challenge (First race of final): 1 - 0
The first final at the bottom third of the table did not last too long. Iain Percy, helmsman of +39 Challenge, was confident before the race that today´s stronger breeze, up to 18 knots, would benefit their old ITA-59 boat. Unfortunately, ITA-59 not only didn't take advantage of the stronger conditions but it did indeed showed her advanced age and delicate health when in the first leg yet another gear failure forced the Italian team to abandon the race.

China Team - United Internet Team Germany (First race of petit-final): 0 - 1
After a very equal start, United Internet Germany Team gained a small lead in the first leg. A combination of crew errors and simple inferiority from the Chinese team led to a very comfortable win by the German team.