America's Cup & Louis Vuitton Cup News and Results

Team New Zealand has equalised the scores, leading Alinghi 28 seconds across the finish line.

Alinghi has defeated Team New Zealand in the first of the 32nd America's Cup series.

Emirates Team New Zealand has defeated Luna Rossa Challenge for the 5th consecutive time, earning them the Louis Vuitton Cup and the right to challenge for the America's Cup.

Emirates Team New Zealand has crossed the line in first place for the 4th consecutive time in this regatta. The final delta was approximately 1 minute.

One more race stands between them and entry into the America's Cup challenge.

Team NZ has defeated Luna Rossa (1min 38s) for the 3rd consecutive race in the LV Cup final.

Team NZ: 3
LR: 0

As of 3 June 2007, the results so far are:

Emirates Team New Zealand: 2
Luna Rossa Challenge: 0

Racing was cancelled yesterday due to excessive windspeed and has been scheduled to resume today.

The rankings are as follows:

1= BMW ORACLE Racing (12 races, 10 wins)
1= Luna Rossa Challenge (12 races, 10 wins)
3 Emirates Team New Zealand (11 races, 8 wins)
4 Desafío Español 2007 (12 races, 8 wins)
5 Victory Challenge (12 races, 7 wins)
6= Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team (12 races, 6 wins)
6= Team Shosholoza (12 races, 6 wins)
8 Areva Challenge (12 races, 6 wins)
9 +39 Challenge (12 races, 2 wins)
10= United Internet Team Germany (12 races, 1 win)
10= China Team (12 races, 1 win)

ML Capitalia has defeated Emirates Team New Zealand with a delta of 15 seconds.

Prada has defeated China Team.

With sufficient winds to race today, the Louis Vuitton Cup has seen its first victory: BMW Oracle has just defeated Team Germany with a delta of 2 minutes.

Updates to follow.

For the fourth day in a row, racing has been cancelled due to low winds. No races for the Louis Vuitton Cup have been started so far.

Racing was cancelled again today (for the 3rd time) due to low winds.

Racing was cancelled today due to low winds.

To earn an opportunity at winning the legendary America's Cup, the challenger team must first win the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Races for this prestigious prerequisite cup will begin in Valencia today where Emirates Team New Zealand will battle Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team.

More updates to follow.

Full race schedule.

A perfect start in perfect racing conditions of 15 knots steady sees Alinghi take the America's Cup 5-0 from Team New Zealand.

Gear failure for the 3rd time struck TNZ again today, although it was only a minor spinnaker pole break. Nonetheless, it further allowed Alinghi to extend their lead, who never trailed TNZ throughout the whole race.



Deltas

* 1 sec (Alinghi)
* 21 secs (Alinghi)
* 18 secs (Alinghi)
* 16 secs (Alinghi)
* 31 secs (Alinghi)
* 42 secs (Alinghi)
* 45 secss (Alinghi)

57 minutes into the 4th America's Cup race, Team New Zealand's mast snapped in 17-18 knots of breeze. Fortunately, no one was harmed.

The break came as a result of the boat coming into contact with two strong waves. They threw the boat into the air, causing it to come crashing down onto yet another wave which finally broke the mast.

Prior to the disaster, Team New Zealand trailed constantly throughout the race, with Alinghi taking an extremely strong position at the start.

Once again, racing was cancelled today due to light winds. At one stage during the day, winds were only at 2 knots on the Hauraki Gulf.

It wasn't all bad news for the spectators at the Viaduct basin though, as Team New Zealand made an appearance thanking the crowd for their support.

Tomorrow will hopefully bring racing weather with it, as well as the chance for TNZ's new tactician Bertrand Pace to sail against Alinghi.

Unfortunately, racing was cancelled today after a 2 hour postponement. The reason for cancellation was the extremely shifty weather conditions — 7 knots here, 15 knots there. The wind was simply not steady enough.

In a win that has been attributed to Brad Butterworth's "uncanny ability to pick the shifts", Alinghi completely dominated Team New Zealand throughout the whole race.

While Team New Zealand tried to claw back into the game by engaging in a tacking duel halfway through the race, Alinghi never allowed them a chance to pass — even though TNZ took the usually favoured end of the line at the start.

It seems safe to say now that the relative speeds of the two boats are roughly equal.

Deltas

* 2 sec (Alinghi)
* 28 secs (Alinghi)
* 20 secs (Alinghi)
* 17 secs (Alinghi)
* 15 secs (Alinghi)
* 21 secs (Alinghi)
* 23 secs (Alinghi)

A thrilling race out on the Hauraki Gulf today. Team New Zealand led for most of the race, until the very final leg where Alinghi pulled out everything they had to try and roll Team New Zealand. With some tears in their spinnaker, Alinghi managed to do just that — snatch TNZ's victory from under their noses, and winning by just 7 seconds.

This also marked Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts' 10th consecutive America's Cup win in a row, setting a new world record.

Deltas

* 0 secs
* 12 secs (Alinghi)
* 34 secs (Team NZ)
* 26 secs (Team NZ)
* 14 secs (Team NZ)
* 26 secs (Alinghi)
* 7 secs (Alinghi)

Both teams started very well in the 20½ knot winds that blew on Day 1 of the 31st America's Cup, with perhaps Team New Zealand taking a slight advantage over Alinghi by taking the left side.

However, catastrophe soon ensued for Team New Zealand just 10 minutes into the race. The New Zealand boat — Black Magic — began taking in approximately 2-5 tonnes of water while sailing, the cause of which is unknown.

As if that wasn't enough, the outhaul then slipped, which caused the main to luff and the tip of the boom to shatter. Then, the jib fell free into the water, all while the head foil sustained damage.

Team New Zealand withdrew at this point, just 12 minutes into the race. Alinghi goes up 1 point today against TNZ.