America's Cup BMW Oracle team surprised by down wind speed

9:47 PM Fri 12 Feb 2010 GMT

'VALENCIA - SPAIN, 12 February 2010.
Best of 3 races. Race 1.
Defender Alinghi Team 'ALINGHI 5' leading Challenger BMW Oracle Racing 'USA 17' (Trimaran) at start.' ThMartinez / Sea & Co &copy

Today, BMW ORACLE Racing dominated in the first race of the 33rd America's cup off Valencia.

Russell Coutts, team CEO, on the result today: 'It was a great race for the team today certainly. It was a good day for everyone. The wing sail was great. The team was great and the guys sailed a really good race. No complaints.'

Larry Ellison, team founder and after guard member, on what he saw today: 'Russell and I decided to get off the boat, to sail with as few sailors as possible. So we were watching and that's always more stressful than actually sailing. We thought we'd be good in strong breeze, but it shocked us to do this well in lighter wind.

'But Alinghi is the America's Cup champion and we need to win two races, not one. We're taking nothing for granted. I'm so proud of the guys who designed the boat, the guys who built the boat, the shore team, the sailing team. All of these guys have worked so hard for two and half years. Now we need to do it again on Sunday. It's going to be 'all-on' on Sunday.'

Jimmy Spithill, skipper and helmsman of USA, on his feelings on the day: 'This was one of the hardest days I've had on the boat with the pressure and direction changes. But all in all it was a good day. I'm sure there are some improvements we can make, but obviously it was great.'

On the pre- start: 'We did a pretty nice job we were able to get the penalty and really had them on the ropes. But we got locked in to windward and tried to tack out but had a bit of a fumble and got stuck in the breeze. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to!

But leading up to that, the guys did a great job of putting us in a very powerful position.'

On the boat speed: 'I always thought if we were able to fly a hull we'd be faster upwind, but I was genuinely surprised downwind.'

by Jane Eagleson

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America's Cup BMW Oracle team surprised by down wind speed

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