'Alinghi' ends 'OneWorld's unbeaten Cup run

Reuters, Auckland

Alinghi of Switzerland ended U.S. team OneWorld's nine race winning streak with a battling 27-second win in round robin two of the America's Cup challengers series in New Zealand on Thursday.

Biotechnology billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's slick Swiss syndicate are now alone at the top of the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers standings with nine points from their first 10 races, losing only to OneWorld in the first round.

OneWorld, backed by telecoms investor Craig McCaw and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, had been the only unbeaten team among the nine challengers but are now in second place after their first loss.

OneWorld has also been penalized a point for possessing design secrets from other teams before the regatta.

McCaw made his first appearance on OneWorld in the "17th man" guest spot but it was an inauspicious appearance for the mobile phone pioneer.

The match pitted Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts, twice an America's cup winner for New Zealand, against OneWorld's talented 23-year-old Australian helmsman James Spithill.

Experience gradually told when Coutts and his team picked a favorable wind shift on the first leg of the 18.5 nautical mile course. Alinghi kept their lead for the rest of the race, with OneWorld never more than half a minute behind.

"We were disappointed we were not faster but I think the boats were pretty even," Alinghi tactician Jochen Schuemann said.

"The win keeps us at the top of the leaderboard, which is good, but the important thing is mainly to be in the top four and we are there," he told reporters.

Software billionaire Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW Racing went out with a new-look afterguard after he sidelined skipper Peter Holmberg and comfortably beat eighth-placed Italians Mascalzone Latino by two minutes and 40 seconds.

Ellison, frustrated after his $85 million team lost four of their last five races, replaced Holmberg at the helm with experienced New Zealander Chris Dickson and named himself as skipper.

Italian team Prada, the defending challengers champion, continued its resurgence with its third win in two days, beating Team Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes by 41 seconds.

Prada worked around the clock over the past week reconfiguring the bow, hull and rigging of the boat. The work has paid off, with the stylish silver and red boat leaping from seventh place to equal third with Oracle in the past two days.

Sweden's Victory Challenge took to the water with their new race boat Orm and comfortably beat the winless Le Defi Areva of France by 79 seconds.