After being delayed from starting on Monday and Wednesday, due to unfavourable wind conditons, yesterday saw challenger US team BMW Oracle Racing's monster trimaran emphatically beating the defender Alinghi 5 catamaran in the first race of the 33rd America's Cup. It's the best of three races, and if everything goes in the same way that race 1 did, the ultimate victory could be decided tomorrow.
BMW Oracle is equipped with a revolutionary and incredibly powerful 68 metre long wing sail, and the trimaran was 1-3 knots faster on any point of sail, sailing higher upwind and lower downwind ultimately reaching speeds of up to 28 knots. BMW Oracle finished more than 3 kilometres ahead of Alinghi 5, who also incurred a right of way penalty. The finishing time margin was over 15 minutes.
Follow the 2nd race live from Valencia on the official America's Cup website tomorrow. The live video stream coverage and expert commentary is excellent.
http://www.americascup.com/en/index.html
