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.

The first race of the day, race 10 of the Pro-Driver series, went to Team Alinghi, who recovered from a difficult day on Thursday, to earn a much needed victory.

With the hour getting late, the Race Committee decided that there would only be one race in the Owner-Driver series.

The race was first abandoned a few minutes after the start and when racing eventually began, a heavy fog had descended again. Team Alinghi’s Ernesto Bertarelli sailed a strong race, to earn the victory.

At dispute is whether that race is the last race of the series or not. If it is, Alinghi would earn two points for the win, tying the series at two points for each team and apparently winning the Owner-Driver series on a tie-break formula, by virtue of having won the last race.

But the BMW ORACLE Racing Team maintains the race schedule is for four races, that there is time for that race on Saturday, and it wasn’t aware that the race today had become the final race in the series. In that case, the standing would be two points for BMW ORACLE Racing, and one point for Alinghi, with a final race to come worth two points. The winner of that race would then win the series.

The Jury was hearing the protest on Friday evening, with a result expected late in the night.

The situation is clearer in the Pro-Driver series, where BMW ORACLE leads 9 to 6, with two races worth 10 points still to sail. The winner of the last race, worth seven points, will win the series.

UBS TROPHY - Pro-Driver Series - Race 10 of 12

ALINGHI beats BMW ORACLE RACING - Delta 0:27
BMW ORACLE RACING LEADS THE PRO-DRIVER SERIES 9 POINTS TO 6

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.

UBS TROPHY - Owner-Driver Series - Race Three

ALINGHI beats BMW ORACLE RACING - Delta 0:11

** The result of this race, and the status of this series are under dispute.

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.

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Quotes of the Day

Chris Dickson, BMW ORACLE Racing, on the protest by his team: There’s a little confusion. Our understanding is there’s one race to go in the Owner-Driver series. There was discussion about was the last Owner-Driver today the final race of the day. Was there to be one race today, or two today…clearly (there’s) some different understandings of what was talked about today.

Ernesto Bertarelli, Team Alinghi, on the better results today for Team Alinghi: Today was a better day than yesterday, I don’t think yesterday could have been worse…I clearly enjoyed much more the first race. Alinghi did a great job tactically, and gave back to BMW ORACLE a little bit of what they gave to us over the last few days.

John Kostecki, BMW ORACLE Racing, on being a tactician in the fog: It was a tricky day because of the fog, but really it was just that last race, the second half of the race, when the fog made it difficult to see the buoys. As a tactician, you have to rely on your navigator, so it’s a navigational race, and as a tactician it’s hard to see the water or wind or anything, so there wasn’t a whole lot for a tactician to do in a race like that.

Peter Holmberg, Team Alinghi, explaining how he passed BMW ORACLE Racing in the Pro-Driver race today: At the bottom part of the track starboard becomes the strongest goal for us, so our objective was to get across them and get starboard advantage and we were surprised they let us have it. So we took their stern…we gybed onto starboard, and then we had the upper hand. They tried to get out of the corner on port, but we made it difficult for them, protected starboard and led them back to the mark. So it was a nice pass, and we were really happy to pull it off.

Ernesto Bertarelli, Team Alinghi, on his guest strategist, Newport resident, Ken Read: It is an honour for us to have Ken Read sail with us. He is a local here and knows the water. Yesterday was the first day and he learned how to work with us and today we see some of the results. So we are pleased with what he has been contributing…it worked today and that could be an option (to have him join the team). We are looking at different sailors. We clearly have to hire more people and Ken could be one person.

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