SWITZERLAND’S Alinghi yesterday qualified for the finals of the challenge round of yachting’s America’s Cup by defeating American rival Oracle on the Hauraki Gulf.

YACHTING’S America’s Cup was last night sailing into a new storm as holders Team New Zealand (TNZ) questioned the legal standing of a crucial tactic of the likely challenger.

THE BOATS, if these computer-sculpted splinters can be called watercraft at all, are utterly charmless.

EMBATTLED America’s Cup challengers OneWorld led from start to finish to open a 2-0 lead yesterday over bitter US rival Team Dennis Conner in their quarter-finals repechage.

THE British crew in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challenger series for the America’s Cup, took a step up into what has been described as the ‘middle league’ the four teams likely to tussle over the valuable fourth semi finals spot when they dispatched Sweden’s Victory Challenge yesterday by a comfortable 48 seconds.

THOUGH Prada scored an important win in the only match to be completed in flight 6 of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series for the America’s Cup, GBR Challenge was saved from defeat by the very light winds.

BRITAIN were defeated in their historic first return to the America’s Cup stage in 15 years, as they lost to Team Dennis Conner’s vastly experienced crew on Stars and Stripes in the first showcase race of the 31st America’s Cup series.

NINE syndicates from six countries will fight for the right to challenge the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, the present holders of the America’s Cup, for the 31st edition of the sailing competition off Auckland.

IT used to be the sea breezes on distant tree boughs that gave the first clues of impending drama at the America’s Cup, but now the early excitement comes from the competitors’ efforts to peek under their rivals’ skirts.

Double America’s Cup winner Peter Blake has been killed by pirates in the Amazon, his race sponsors said today.