Team New Zealand beat BMW Oracle in Louis Vuitton Trophy

By just one second, Emirates Team New Zealand ended the seven-race unbeaten run of America’s Cup holder BMW Oracle in the round robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Dubai.

But they still have a three and a half point lead at the top of the six-boat fleet. All the other four would be equal on three points, but Italy’s Mascalzone Latino trails Sweden’s Artemis, Russia’s Synergy, and the Franco-German All4One because of taking a one-point penalty.

European silver medallist Charlotte Dobson was Skandia Team GBR’s star of the day at the Olympic classes world championship test event in Fremantle, W. Australia.

She posted a third and a first to take overall second place and top female after the second day of racing for the Laser Radial class.

The Skandia Team GBR Finn squad is continuing to trouble the fleet, with Giles Scott taking the gun in the first race of the day and Ben Ainslie crossing in second in race two on the second day, while Nick Thompson and Paul Goodison are fourth and fifth respectively after a total of four races in the Laser.

Ainslie is also to contest in Perth the Australia Cup match race event before going on to contest the final regatta in the World Match Race Tour, the Monsoon Cup, in Malaysia.

With 600 miles to go, Pete Goss is lying 14th in his Class 40 DMS on the Route du Rhum singlehanded race from St. Malo to Guadeloupe. Richard Tolkien is 32nd in ICAP Orca.

In Alicante, chief executive Knut Frostad said he was confident there would be eight or nine entries in the Volvo round the world race which starts from the Mediterranean port in a year’s time.

Also announcing that DHL would be the new logistics partner, Frostad was addressing representatives of the four teams which have already challenged publicly, Abu Dhabi, Puma of the U.S., Groupama of France, and Camper, managed by Team New Zealand, of Spain.

Strangely absent was the Spanish group Telefonica, which is thought not only to be building a new boat but planning to enter a second boat, Telefonica Blue, from the last race.