The crossover seems to be 12 knots. In windspeeds below that and if the water is flat, then the Farr-designed USA 76 of Oracle BMW seems to be even in speed with the Vrolijk-designed SUI 64 of the Swiss Alinghi team.
As soon as the wind climbs into the 13s, 14s, 15s and both yachts start to throw a bit of Hauraki Gulf spray with their bows, then Alinghi appears to have a telling performance edge. That's the evidence of the first five races of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final.
SUI 64 won the first two races handily in medium breezes. She narrowly took the third when the breeze was light, thanks to a penalty against Oracle, and lost the fourth similarly light air affair.
Over 12 knots of breeze and USA 76 seems to hurt a little in tacking exchanges, lacks a bit of upwind edge and perhaps exhibits some sort of advantage downwind. Less than 12 knots and the mix changes and parity is achieved. We saw that clearly in today's fifth race victory, which moved Alinghi onto match point.
Down on the first two legs, Alinghi started to eat into Oracle's lead on the second beat as the windspeed built, passed on the next downhill slide and, once ahead, extended.
Observing the Oracle campaign since 1 October has been absorbing, and by that I don't mean the rearranging of the furniture among the afterguard. USA 76 is being sailed quite differently now from the start of the trials.
Early on, USA 76 had the classic Farr-boat set-up: flat sail shapes, main traveller down, jib led outboard and super-hard trim on both sails. It has been a characteristic of Bruce Farr since he brought best skiff practice into keelboats.
It explains a lot about the shape of the Oracle BMW boats, which have probably the narrowest waterline beam in the class of 2003 but feature midships flare expressly to permit the jib sheeting base Farr likes.
Many have commented on the fact that USA 76 has crammed on mainsail area since the start of the trials. And it's true. For the Louis Vuitton Cup Final it seems to have climbed again. Yet not many have noticed that Oracle BMW sails now have deeper camber. The jibs are sheeted further inboard and the mainsail trimmed with more traveller up and the head twisted off more: almost the definitive Alinghi and OneWorld set-up, in fact.
And the boat is going better than ever before. But it has been a struggle. "The Oracle boats are not the easiest boats to sail," admits navigator Ian 'Fresh' Burns, who in the real world is part of the Murray/Jones/Dovell design partnership in Australia.
Certainly you can hear the runners and mainsheet traveller being worked very hard. "But in my experience, a quirky boat is often a fast boat if you can keep the performance running more hot than cold," adds Burns.
Perhaps this is the big question to ask about Oracle - an $80 million question if you are in Larry Ellison's shoes. When he removed Paul Cayard and Chris Dickson from the heart of the campaign 18 months ago, did he rip out a catalyst from its heart? It's true that the various departments - sailing team, design, weather, etc - carried on operating efficiently but this America's Cup is all about total immersion, total integration, total commitment.
And for that you need a driving force at the heart, an individual who makes a boat tick every bit as much as he can make a team beat to the same pulse.
Tim Jeffery, 17 January 2003
