America's Cup - UBS Trophy - Newport, RI June 2004

UBS Trophy

The week-long America's Cup Class racing event between Alinghi and BMW Oracle concluded June 26th in Newport, Rhode Island, with BMW Oracle winning both the Pro-Driver and the Owner-Driver Series. By all accounts, the racing was held in a spectacular setting for fans, with the courses laid out very close to shore, making it easy for spectators to follow the action.

Visit the UBS Trophy Site (now offline)

Also: CupInfo Chats with Alinghi's Christian Karcher

Images:

UBST Photos at: Outside Images

CupInfo's UBST Photo Gallery

Television:
Outdoor Life Network broadcast three programs June 29-July 1 covering the regatta, and re-aired the programs in early August. Several other countries received UBS Trophy programming in July.

UBS Trophy Racing Results:

Saturday: Saturday saw enjoyable weather with 12-15 knots of breeze. Peter Holmberg sailing for Alinghi led BMW Oracle's Gavin Brady in both Professional Helmsman races. Alinghi now leads the Pro series 2-0, but scoring for the UBS Trophy awards progressively higher points for later races, so today's wins were only the opening shots of the match.

Sunday: 2 Professional Helmsman Races. BMW Oracle won the first race (by 1:46), and then beat Alinghi again in the second race to even the Pro Series at 2-2.

Monday: 2 Professional Helmsman Races. BMW Oracle lead at every mark to win Race 1 by 0:35. In a hectic Race 2 that saw blown spinnakers on each boat, BMW prevailed again, winning 2 more points, and now leads the Pro Series 5 points to 2.

Tuesday: BMW Oracle took the shortened first race. Alinghi fought back in the second, winning by 0:24. Simon Daubney, of Alinghi: "Some of the new guys on board were starting to say that we must have just been incredibly lucky in Auckland (at the last America’s Cup). It was nice to get a win this afternoon for those guys to show that we’re not completely hopeless." Pro series leader is BMW Oracle 7 points to 4.

See CupInfo's Chart of Gains and Leads in UBS Tropy Racing (through Tuesday)

Wednesday was a lay day.

Thursday: BMW Oracle won Race 1 by 0:26, extending their Pro Series lead to 9-4. BMW Oracle continued to roll in Race 2, an Owner Helmsman race, winning by a margin of 1:24. In the third race, also an Owner Helmsman match, BMW Oracle led start to finish despite a minor collision and resulting penalty turn, posting a 0:41 final delta. BMW Oracle now leads the Owner Series 2-0.

Friday: Alinghi gains ground on BMW Oracle, winning the Pro Series race by 0:27 and the Owner race by 0:11. The Owner series is now tied at 2-2 while the Pro Series now stands at 9-6 for BMW Oracle with one race worth seven points remaining.

Saturday: BMW Oracle did Larry Ellison proud, winning the deciding Owner and Pro races to take home both series honors.

Ernesto Bertarelli : "This is exactly what we both wanted after the last America’s Cup; not to wait, Larry in California and me in Switzerland, waiting for the next America’s Cup. We wanted to enjoy the investment of having two fantastic teams with beautiful boats and go at each other again. So I think it was a very successful week."

Larry Ellison: "If you measure the aggression by the damage to the boats, I’d say the Owner-Driver series maybe had a little more adrenalin than it should have had. Both Ernesto and I want to win as much as everyone else."

See the Official UBS Trophy website for more (now offline)