Swiss on a roll as Alinghi goes three up

The America's Cup took another step towards Europe yesterday when Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi beat the defender, Team New Zealand, by 23sec to go 3-0 up in the best-of-nine series. Close though it may appear, Russell Coutts and his crew had control from the starting gun until they romped home a little more than two hours later.

Coutts and his lieutenant Brad Butterworth were simply smarter than their opponents. They produced counter-measures to every attack tried by the Kiwi skipper Dean Barker - nothing, it seemed, could shake their utter determination to continue the Swiss boat's run of success.

Coutts now has 12 successive victories in the America's Cup, and Butterworth one more, but, more importantly, never in the history of the cup has anyone come back from 3-0 down, as Team New Zealand will know all too well.

In the 12-17 knot breeze, the Alinghi had its weather team reporting the conditions on the course until five minutes before the start. Among that weather team is Jon Bilger, a Kiwi Olympian who has sailed here on Hauraki Gulf for years, and his reading of the situation probably swayed Butterworth's final decision.

Both teams had made it plain they wanted the left-hand side of the start line and to go to the left on the first windward leg, but with two minutes to go Butterworth changed his mind. He had seen the first signs of the wind shift to the right-hand side that Bilger had reported. Coutts then seemed content to force Barker to the left before tacking on to the line for the right.

Then, right on cue, the wind shifted 22 degrees to the right just as Alinghi's weather team had predicted. The Swiss boat took full advantage and moved into a 150-metre lead. It was the decisive move, one that immediately put Team New Zealand on the back foot.

But Barker clearly believed a win was achievable and he launched logical and spirited moves to close the gap. He worked closely with his tactician Hamish Pepper and strategist Adam Beashel to edge a little closer and though he was 28sec behind around the first mark that was to be the biggest margin between the boats.

Downwind the Kiwis' boat made an 8sec gain and after the second round had closed to 15sec. Barker threw all his effort into the third beat, tacking 15 times in an effort to shake off the unwelcome presence of Coutts dead to windward. The proximity of the boats was such that he lost 6sec - all too easily done here - but was still in a position to try an attack on the final run to the finish and a 23sec defeat.