Alinghi and BMW Oracle set for America's Cup battle

The bickering of the billionaires will cease temporarily on Monday when racing in the America's Cup is due to start. Whether it will start is dependent on the weather and, despite the absurd low wind limits that the defender, the Swiss Alinghi 5, had sought to demand being rejected by the international jury, the decision to race will be in the hands of the race committee. This is not viewed as totally satisfactory by the challenger, Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle from the Golden Gate YC of San Francisco, as the race committee is that of the defender's club, the Société Nautique de Genève, and members of it have been seen wearing Alinghi uniform clothing – hardly independent. The 110-foot catamaran, Alinghi 5, is an elegant machine, whose design appears based on the 35-footers that race on Lake Geneva, and as such it is at its best in light breezes. Originally the top wind speed was 15 knots at 60 metres above the surface of the sea and it is unlikely that racing will be held if that is exceeded. The challenger's boat is a 113.3-foot trimaran that has a wing rig 223 feet tall. This wing is far bigger than that of an A-380 Airbus and is a more sophisticated approach to harnessing wind power than the conventional soft-sail rig of Alinghi 5. In winds over seven knots BMW Oracle is predicted to be the faster but in lighter winds Alinghi 5 should have the edge. What will be very different about the 33rd running of the America's Cup is the speed at which the races will be completed, even though they are longer. In practice over the 20-mile legs of the windward/leeward course on Wednesday, Alinghi 5 started in 4.5 knots of wind and completed the upwind leg in one hour 35 minutes. Then, as the boat rounded the mark, the breeze got up to 7-10 knots and the leg took only 55 minutes for the 20 miles, an average in excess of three times the wind speed. The outcome will almost certainly be determined by the strength of the wind. Further legal battle is inevitable no matter which of the teams wins. If Alinghi wins two of the three potential races, the American team will challenge the validity of the Swiss boat's sails. The Deed of Gift, which is the source of the basic rules, contains a requirement that the boat and sails are constructed in the country of the challenge and the sails Alinghi uses were manufactured in Minden, Nevada and not Switzerland. In addition, if BMW Oracle wins, there is an outstanding court action in which the Swiss are accused of breaching the fiduciary duty of the trust deed. That action accuses the Alinghi team of using the Cup for the personal gain of Ernesto Bertarelli, the team's owner. Sailors, however, are welcoming the high-speed contest between two of the most exciting boats ever to compete for sailing's greatest prize.