Time in court is finally coming to an end and time on the water is about to start.

Some say the giants are gone - sure the time of the giant multi has passed. Superb boats such as Tag, Royal, is gone but new giants are emerging.

BPV, Groupama 3 and Idec are all out to set new records.

But here is another dual of giants. Alinghi's cat vs Oracle's tri.

Having raced Model boat Multi I would say Oracle will be better in the tacking and somehow more forgiven boa to sail in the gusts but the sheer speed of a catamaran is not to be forgotten, but more difficult to keep up-right consistently at the top speed.

Personally I think it's a pity the AC has come to that as i think having more boats and the format of the 32nd AC was just fine. I will nonetheless enjoy watching these giants battling it out.

So Tri or Cata ???

Well we'll have to wait that bit longer as the wind in the start area is barely 1.5knots.

Both teams are on the water waiting for more breeze to come. Being February the land heats up much slower then in May when the cup is usually held and so it could be a while before they get going.

So for now we wait. Bering in mind we could wait until Wednesday. If the OC decides no race will be held today and race 1 will be scheduled for Wednesday then.

So we'll see.....

Don't you just love the expression on Ellison's face when the MC screws up the announcement...

{youtube}ww747Uh1WoE{/youtube}

LOL you'd think they'd get it right...

Anyway a big disappointment to see or rather not see any racing today.

I would suspect the Alinghi's team is hoping for light wind to take full advantage of their lighter displacement vs Oracle's tri which typically are more efficient in heavier wind. Though their trimaran is quite extreme with massive loads which would limit their sailing wind range.

So wednesday it is ...

Well no wind again so no racing yesterday. Tomorrow is the next day for these 2 giants to finally battle it out on the water instead of in court !!

Though not revealed yet the rumour is the budget for each side is in excess of Ä150m I can't stop wondering what will become of these flying but extreme machines once the cup is over ???

It was said that the risk of breakage was estimated at 30% in racing conditions just to show how extreme these boats are...

Did you know :
Alinghi's genneker is 1100m2 and is one of the biggest sail ever made.

Oracle's wing mast of 68m tall is bigger then the wing span of an Airbus A380. It was also engineered by French engineers (bien sur !!!)

After seeing race 1 finally getting under way I wonder and only hope that it won't be a on horse show which in this case will see the cup leaving our European shores to the US unless something magical happens.

Being a "drag race" we clearly saw BMW Oracle's sheer speed and power of their massive wing mast. After giving a pen to Alinghi and getting stuck upwind when Alinghi powered away, they managed to close the gap relatively quickly with a marginal boat speed advantage but most impressively with their pointing ability given by their wing mast. To the point where they took the lead on the first upwind leg and continued to grow their lead to a massive 3500m at the end over Alinghi.

So the question now is have we seen all we need and the next races are gonna be a repeat of race 1 ? interest dropping quickly at this point I have to say if this was to happen the interest would drop very quickly or can Alinghi recover and match the performance BMW Oracle so they can be in with a change to defend and retain the cup ? (I hope they do !!!) Go Alinghi