Head-to-Head racing begins

May 14, 2007

Today marks the start of Louis Vuitton Cup semi-final racing, where the four teams are arranged into two groups of best-of-nine races.

The weather for today looks good, with clear skies and a northwesterly breeze. Let the racing begin!

Kiwis and Italians take the lead

May 14, 2007

The first matches of the semi finals got off to an interesting start today with Emirates Team New Zealand beating Desafío Español 2007 and Luna Rossa Challenge beating BMW Oracle Racing.

Desafío Español haven't been able to beat the New Zealander's yet and they trailed them for the entire match today, though they made a good effort at trying to catch up in the middle of the race. The odds are firmly on New Zealand to pass through to the finals but with four or more matches to go, anything can happen.

Luna Rossa Challenge and BMW Oracle Racing had a good match, with the Italians leading by 51 seconds on the 1st Windward leg and the American's catching them up to within a few seconds on the 1st Leeward leg. At that point it could have been anyone's match but the Italians pulled away again to win by a strong 2 minutes 19 seconds.