America S Cup

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - OneWorld Challenge from the Seattle Yacht Club became the only team to win all eight races in the opening round of sailing's Louis Vuitton Cup after inflicting a third straight defeat on BMW Racing's Oracle today Nine teams are competing off the Auckland coast for the right to challenge Team New Zealand in February in the 31st America's Cup, the oldest international sporting event, first held in 1851. As many as five races that were postponed last week were scheduled today, before an eight-day break to allow teams to repair or upgrade boats.

America's Cup skipper Dawn Riley is attempting to defend her title in the Boat U.S. Santa Maria Cup - the premier match-racing yacht competition for women in the United States - against some of the world's best-known female sailors. With the Eastport Yacht Club as host, this week's five-day Chesapeake Bay event has attracted 12 sailing stars, including top-ranked Shirley Robertson from Britain, who came in second to Riley last year, and Rhode Island's Betsy Alison, the only five-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year and three-time U.S. women's national sailing champion.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Wonder why, for the first time in 149 years, there was no American boat in the America's Cup race here? Look no further than bearded, California yachting guru Doug Peterson. Described in the official race program as "the hottest America's Cup designer," he has almost single-handedly scuttled U.S. chances in the past two Cup competitions. First, he was a lead designer of the New Zealand boat, Black Magic, that brought the Cup to Auckland in 1995 by defeating veteran U.S. skipper Dennis Conner, 5-0, in San Diego.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Team New Zealand, skippered by a 26-year-old first-timer, retained the America's Cup today with a clean, 5-0 sweep over the Italians, sending this nation of sailors into party time. It was the first successful non-American defense in the Cup's 149-year history, with the Kiwis repeating the 5-0 whitewash they gave Cup veteran Dennis Conner in San Diego in 1995 to win sailing's most prestigious trophy. Dean Barker replaced veteran Russell Coutts, 38, at the wheel of the Kiwis' boat, Black Magic, for its final race.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Russell Coutts and Francesco de Angelis, New Zealand and Italian skippers in the America's Cup sailing competition, have the pride of their nations in their hands these days. But, with a 3-0 lead going into tomorrow's fourth race (tonight in Baltimore), Coutts clearly has the more secure grip. And, as each stands behind the wheel of a 75-foot racer here, he is backed by the support of millions of his countrymen and women. Already, both are national heroes: Coutts for outsailing veteran U.S. skipper Dennis Conner to win the Cup, 5-0, in San Diego in 1995, and giving Team New Zealand its commanding lead in the current Cup; De Angelis for getting the Italians, relative newcomers to sail match-racing, into the challenger's slot this year after winning his way past 10 crews -- five from the U.S. -- from six nations in a marathon, 202-match challengers series.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- The 30th America's Cup between New Zealand and Italy here is turning out to be a competition between innovation and grace, and at the moment, innovation is winning, 2-0. The New Zealand boat, Black Magic, is turning out to be a real box of tricks -- above and below the water line. The Italian boat, Luna Rossa, is a classic 75-foot Cup racer, the fine-lined product of the big-spending Prada syndicate. It was so sleek and fast during the past four months as it sped past 10 other boats from six nations to win the challengers' series that it earned the nickname "Silver Bullet."

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- The man behind Team New Zealand's early success in defending the America's Cup here is Sir Peter Blake, who brought yachting's oldest and most prestigious trophy to this island nation in the first place. As syndicate head in San Diego in 1995, Blake put together such a powerful campaign that he gave veteran U.S. skipper Dennis Conner, sailing Young America, a 5-0 beating. It was only the second time in its 144-year history that the Cup had left the United States.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Paul Cayard, the sailor thought most likely to bring the America's Cup back to its long-standing home in the United States, has a reasoned view of his failure to do so. He was, he says, distracted from the ultimate goal of reaching the finishing line first by the more immediate challenge of making sure he had enough money even to get to the starting line. For much of the past three years he was focusing on fund-raising for AmericaOne, one of five U.S. boats defeated in the Louis Vuitton challenger series here for the right to challenge the New Zealanders for the America's Cup. For nine months he was sailing the Swedish boat EF Language to victory in the 32,000-mile Whitbread Round The World race.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Sailing faster both upwind and downwind, the New Zealand boat Black Magic won the opening race of the 30th America's Cup against Italy's Luna Rossa by a commanding 1 minute, 17 seconds. It was an immediate boost to the Kiwis' effort to become the first non-American team to successfully defend the 149-year-old Cup, sports' oldest continuous trophy. It was also a convincing rebuttal of skeptics who thought Black Magic's innovative design would give it the edge in heavy weather at the cost of its light wind performance.