Lous Vitton (America's) Cup semi-finals.

[Mariner]

Well, BMW Oracle fell behind this morning 1-4 in a 9 race series, meaning if they lose tomorrow, the US will have no team left in the running for the America's cup. On the other hand, if they can win the next four races, against Italy, they'll advance to the finals to face New Zealanad for the right to challenge Alinghi for the cup.

The race starts at 8:30am Eastern on Versus.

http://www.americascup.com/en/

[Mariner]

Well, as you may know, New Zealand won the LV Cup, and advanced to challenge Alinghi. Race three was this morning, and after a three hour delay, they finally started what turned out to be a very exciting race. At the end, New Zealand just barely edged out Alinghi to advance to a 2-1 lead in the nine race series.

[DougSea]

Well, as you may know, New Zealand won the LV Cup, and advanced to challenge Alinghi. Race three was this morning, and after a three hour delay, they finally started what turned out to be a very exciting race. At the end, New Zealand just barely edged out Alinghi to advance to a 2-1 lead in the nine race series.

For those interested, here's a good short article about race 3.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/26/sports/SAIL.php

[Mariner]

Alinghi won this morning in a relatively mild and straighforward race (it was even overcast, adding to the sense of uniformity) compared to yesterday's.

That puts the series tied at 2 races each. Believe it or not, the last time an America's Cup series was this close was in 1993. The two boats and crews seem to be evenly matched, but each have advantages and disadvantages in different areas. Somehow they all seem to even out. We'll see what happens Friday morning.

The best site for updates is the offical America's Cup site:
http://www.americascup.com/en/

[Mariner]

I've been on the boat since Friday (still am, aren't air cards wonderful?), so I didn't get to see it myself, but it appears that Alinghi just won the cup.

[Russell]

That was really an exciting cup race. Tacking duels up the windward legs, spinnaker blowouts and the final finish was incredible. The wind on the downwind leg shifted forward so it became a an upwind course. Alinghi's spinnaker pole broke and NZ was well ahead but had a penalty 360 turn to complete before finishing. They waited as late as they dared to complete the turn and headed for the line. Alinghi came in at full speed under their jib and passed them while NZ was trying to gather speed in the light air. Alinghi got it by 2 seconds. If NZ had been a little closer to the finish line before doing their 360 they might have won but they did the best they could.