The challenger's cup continues. The wind was light and shifty for yesterday's races. Two of the races didn't have enough wind and were postponed until after the last round of races, Flight 9. That was too bad because Larry Ellisons Oracle BMW boat was to have raced the Swedish boat — they are both unbeaten. The OneWold / Stars and Stripes race did get completed and OneWorld handily beat Dennis Connor's Stars and Stripes. Today's races (Flight 6) pit OneWorld against Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW boat. This will be the *big* race of the day.

OneWorld Drifts to the Top
Alinghi and OneWorld win their matches, but two other races are postponed on a tough day on the Hauraki Gulf.

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A Heavyweight Division Begins to Emerge
But, early results may be deceptive ... there's a long way to go

Early results are suggesting the three top teams to be Oracle BMW Racing, OneWorld Challenge and the Swiss Alinghi syndicate. A mighty battle looks set to be waged between Team Dennis Conner and the Swedish Victory Challenge group for the fourth place.
[read more]

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Helmsman Spithill young, but no novice

Spithill, helmsman of OneWorld's USA-67 boat, which was 4-0 after besting Stars & Stripes today on the Hauraki Gulf, is a bright-pupiled pup in a world of droopy-eyed dogs.

At 19, the young Aussie gun was the youngest helmsman ever to pilot an America's Cup contest as he led the aptly named Young Australia crew into the 2000 Louis Vuitton Cup trials. At 23, he's younger by half than most men he stares down across the green waters off New Zealand.

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Playground of Billionaires

It is the end of a long day of racing in the Hauraki Gulf, and America's Cup racing boats are returning to Viaduct Harbor to be hauled ashore, hosed down and cloaked in skirts, to hide the secrets of speed that lurk below their waterlines. With their blunt bows, blade-like sails and carbon-fiber riggings tuned as precisely as a harp, the boats are among the most technologically advanced in the world.

The boat in the harbor that attracts the most attention, however — and the one that best captures the spirit of the ongoing America's Cup challenge, the Louis Vuitton Cup — does not have sails or a team of grinders whirling away at the winches. It is a gleaming white four-story sea monster with black wraparound glass balconies, a basketball court on the afterdeck and an oversize American flag drooping from the stern. It is Larry Ellison's yacht, the 250-foot Katana. The parking spot alone costs $200,000 a month. [read more]