Alinghi tactics switch puts wind up rivals

A LAST-MINUTE strategy switch at the start of yesterday’s third America’s Cup race gave Alinghi of Switzerland the edge they needed to beat defending champion Team New Zealand around the course for a third straight time.

The 23-second victory gave Alinghi a 3-0 lead over Team New Zealand and put them just two wins away from becoming the first European team to ever take home the 152-year-old trophy.

Alinghi led the race from start to finish after choosing to begin the six-leg, 18.5 nautical mile course on the right-hand side where a sudden surge of wind sent them 200 metres ahead of the beleaguered defenders.

Although Team New Zealand was able to close the gap with Alinghi during two hours of duelling in shifting winds and moderate seas, they could never pass the challengers and ended the course 130 metres back.

Alinghi wind strategist Murray Jones said the team initially planned to fight for the left-hand lane at the start of the race, but changed tactics after their weatherman radioed that a wind shift was about to move the advantage to the right.

The news came just a minute before race rules required both boats to cut all communications with support staff and throw radio equipment overboard, Jones said.

“That totally swung our strategy to start on the right and I think that won us the race,” he said.

It was a record 12th consecutive win in America’s Cup racing for Alinghi helmsman Russell Coutts, who skippered Team New Zealand to historic victories in 1995 and 1999, but then defected to the Swiss in a controversial move that earned him the enmity of his home nation.

The triple loss put New Zealand’s defence of sport’s oldest trophy in peril, amid growing doubts both about the usefulness of their boat’s radical new design features and the tactical skills of 29-year-old Barker, Coutts’ former protege.

No team in the 152-year history of the America's Cup has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit, although this is only the third time the cup has been run as a best-of-nine series so a comeback cannot be ruled out.

In yesterday’s race, both sides agreed the speed of the two boats was nearly identical.

But having taken the windier right-hand side of the course after the start, Coutts rounded the first mark four boat lengths ahead.

Team New Zealand clawed back seconds in each of the next three legs, at several points pulling to within two boat lengths of Alinghi.

An uncharacteristic mistake by Alinghi briefly gave New Zealand the windier right-hand side of the course on the fifth leg, but Barker squandered the advantage with a poorly timed tack and never came back.

Last Sunday, a tactical mistake by Team New Zealand saw Alinghi pass them on the final leg after having trailed for most of the race.