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Oracle knocks OneWorld from Cup
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (Reuters) -- Oracle BMW Racing has completed a 4-0 whitewash of bitter U.S. rival OneWorld to win a place in the America's Cup challengers series final. Oracle won the fourth race of its challengers semifinals repechage on Monday by 64 seconds over OneWorld, who had led for the first half of the race and looked set to push the best-of-seven race series into at least one more day. But Oracle fought back strongly and will now sail against leading cup contenders Alinghi of Switzerland in the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers final from January 11. Software billionaire Larry Ellison's $85 million team won four straight repechage races against OneWorld but finished with a five-point advantage after OneWorld was penalised a point for possessing secrets from other teams in a long-running boat design scandal. Oracle was itself beaten 4-0 by Alinghi in their "double chance" semifinal to be forced into the repechage. The challengers final is now shaping as a billionaires' battle with Ellison's team advancing to take on biotechnology heir Ernesto Bertarelli's strong Swiss syndicate. The repechage was at times a bitter battle with claims and counter-claims of rule bending. Ellison has also made little attempt to hide his disdain for OneWorld's links to his avowed software enemy Microsoft. The $75 million Seattle-based OneWorld has a multinational sailing crew but are backed by telecoms investor Craig McCaw and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. OneWorld handed Oracle an easy victory with two bad pre-start errors in the third race on Sunday. But helmsman James Spithill and his fellow Australian skipper Peter Gilmour fought back strongly and outfoxed Oracle's Chris Dickson in the pre-start battle on Monday. OneWorld converted that advantage into a lead of 59 seconds at the end of the first leg in the six-leg race in the Hauraki Gulf off New Zealand's largest city. Oracle chased hard but OneWorld led by 48 seconds at the halfway mark in difficult, shifting winds of 10-14 knots. But then OneWorld appeared to make another critical error as they split away from Oracle on the fourth leg downwind. The boats were sailing more than a kilometre away from each other on opposite sides of the course and it soon became clear that Oracle on the left had better wind. Oracle rounded the fourth mark 38 seconds ahead, a huge loss which OneWorld was unable to overcome on the closing two legs. An arbitration panel imposed the one-point penalty on OneWorld early this month for all remaining stages of the regatta after they were found to have design secrets from other teams. Alinghi and Oracle will now sail off for the right to challenge holders Team New Zealand in the America's Cup in February 2003. Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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