Penalty costs Oracle victory

A penalty cost Larry Ellison's Oracle-BMW Racing victory in the third race of the Louis Vuitton Cup final, giving Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi a 3-0 lead in this first-to-five-wins series.

Oracle approached the finish line 120 yards ahead of Alinghi, but after making its penalty turn on the line it failed narrowly to recross ahead of the Swiss boat.

Oracle's skipper Chris Dickson had made good tactical decisions, taking his boat past Alinghi before the leeward mark. With better wind on the left of the course, Oracle had a 29sec lead at the final mark and Dickson hoped to stretch a further two lengths ahead but a following breeze enabled Alinghi to close the gap, leav ing Oracle not enough time to complete her penalty, which had been imposed for touching Alinghi coming from clear astern.

Dickson said: "That penalty cost us the race." Nevertheless he found some consolation in the fact that "we showed today that USA-76 [Oracle] has the speed to challenge the Swiss".

This was the closest race in the event thus far and the resurgence of Oracle may be attributed to the flatter water conditions or to Peter Holmberg's reappearance at the helm. For the first time Oracle passed Alinghi, demonstrating her superior improved speed on the second downwind leg.

The race had been delayed for 2 hours as the race committee waited for the breeze to fill in to more than the minimum seven knots, but it quickly built to about 10 knots and the start was not as keenly contested as previous ones.

Alinghi started to weather of Oracle and had the advantage of the right side of the course. Brad Butterworth, Alinghi's tactician, wanted to stay there and after little more than a minute he told the crew: "If Oracle tacks, we tack." But that did not happen for five minutes, by which time Alinghi had a 50-yard lead, and at the first mark she led by eight seconds.

Oracle made some gains downwind but was rebuffed on each occasion. The Swiss boat made a five-second gain on the leg and the distance between them was the same at the next mark.

The second downwind run was full of excitement and the on-board umpires were kept extremely busy, with each competitor claiming the other had broken the rules.