Sailing: GBR nip in as Conner's crew slip up

They had to take every chance and not a few risks, but the reward was a deeply satisfying opening point for Britain's GBR Challenge in the America's Cup against Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes in the first of their best of seven races in the quarter-final of the Louis Vuitton Cup here.

The damage was done even before the starting cannon sounded over a Hauraki Gulf that produced a fresh southerly breeze out of a seeming doldrum calm. The Stars & Stripes skipper, Kenny Read, made his bid for control of a right-hand starting spot a little too early and GBR's specialist starting helmsman, Andy Beadsworth, realised he was in trouble. "They might have peeled off down the line, but when they held high it was an open opportunity well worth a punt," Beadsworth said. "He had made a mistake and I went in there."

The result was a penalty against Read as he balked Beadsworth and from then on the chasing umpire boat was a constant reminder to Read and his crew that, even if they were then able to manufacture a lead in the shifty wind, they could never be safe until they had completed a damaging and time-consuming 270-degree turn. They might handle it differently if it happens again, but Ian Walker and his team managed to neutralised a determined throw by Stars & Stripes to inflict a counter-penalty. The move worked, in that they caught GBR out and duly inflicted the penalty. But they did it so crudely that the Americans were penalised again.

That gave the game to GBR, who then had to consider whether they now had a faster boat to contend with and would have to make risky moves to score more penalties, or could match the performance of Conner's newer boat, racing for the first time, USA 77. Beadsworth was upbeat. Afterwards he said: "When we were sailing well we felt our speed was at least as good, if not better."

GBR had stuck to its tactical guns in winds which were both shifting in direction and streaky in pressure, so there is still much to be established. What was clear was that they could push Stars & Stripes, and in two of the other three pairings there was also little to choose as penalties again decided the results. An Oracle BMW minus tactician John Cutler won by only 12 seconds against a OneWorld which had to take a penalty turn, signifying a close encounter between Chris Dickson's team from San Francisco and Peter Gilmour's from Seattle. And a rejuvenated Prada was able to put Alinghi of Switzerland under big pressure when sailing downwind.

The only clear-cut result was scored by Sweden's Victory Challenge, Jesper Bank beating Le Defi Areva of France, whose consolation was that their new skipper Philippe Presti had edged the start.

* The Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm brought his Open 60 Bobst Group-Armor Lux over the line in Table Bay, Cape Town, yesterday to win Leg 2 of the Around Alone Race. Stamm completed the 6,880nm leg from Torbay in 29 days 21hr 59min 45sec. Thierry Dubois on Solidaires was 118nm behind, 91nm ahead of the Briton Emma Richards on Pindar.