The first Round Robin of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the selection series for the eleven challengers to the America's Cup, started yesterday on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.

In the first Round Robin each team will race against the others one time only. Each day the Race Committee gives the start of two series of five matches each, two on one race course and three on the other (the courses are named Atlantic and Pacific).

This means that each team will complete a maximum of two races per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon for a total of ten races per Round Robin.

The first start of the day is scheduled at 10.40 am local time, and the last race cannot be started after 16.00 am local time.

The start of each match will be given at an interval of 10 minutes.

TODAY'S RACING
RACE 1 (not racing Young Australia 2000)
1st match Young America wins over America True (37 seconds lead)
2nd match Nippon wins over Abracadabra 2000 (38 seconds lead)
3rd match Prada Challenge wins over FAST2000 (4 minutes 20 seconds lead)
4th match Team Dennis Conner wins over Le Defi BTT (9 seconds lead)
5th match AmericaOne wins over Spanish Challenge (1 minute 9 seconds lead)

RACE 2 (not racing Dennis Conner)
1st match Prada Challenge wins over Nippon Challenge (2 minutes 3 seconds)
2nd match Young America wins over Spanish Challenge (1 minute 49 seconds)
3rd match AmericaOne wins over America True (3 minutes 45 seconds)
4th match Le Defi BTT wins over Young Australia 2000 (2 minutes 22 seconds)
5th match Abracadabra 2000 wins over FAST2000 (10 minutes 17 seconds)

RESULTS AFTER DAY 1 OF ROUND ROBIN 1 (1 point per win)
2 points - ITA 45 (Luna Rossa)
2 points - USA 49 (AmericaOne)
2 points - USA 53 (Young America)
1 point - JPN 44 (Asura)
1 point - FRA 46 (6eme Sens)
1 point - USA 54 (Abracadabra 2000)
1 point - USA 55 (Stars & Stripes)
0 points - AUS 29 (Young Australia 2000)
0 points - ESP 47 (Bravo Espana)
0 points - USA 51 (America True)
0 points - SUI 59 (be hAPpy)

RACE COURSE
Windward-leeward format, 12.5 nautical miles; four legs, two upwind and two downwind; the first and the last legs are 3.25 miles long, the others 3.00 miles.

TODAY'S WEATHER
NE wind, 5-10 knots. Sunny with increasing clouds.

YESTERDAY'S WEATHER
N-NE breeze, 3-16 knots. Sunny with scattered clouds and some rain in the afternoon. Wind waves up to 1 metre.

TODAY'S RACING
19 October, the racing is scheduled as follows (firts start at 10.40 approx):

RACE 3 - Course to be defined - Not racing America True
1st match Le Defi BTT vs Spanish Challenge
2nd match AmericaOne vs FAST2000
3rd match Abracadabra 2000 vs Dennis Conner
4th match Prada Challenge vs Young Australia 2000
5th match Young America vs Nippon Challenge

RACE 4 - Race course to be defined - Not racing Spanish Challenge
1st match Young Australia 2000 vs Abracadabra 2000
2nd match FAST2000 vs Young America
3rd match Nippon Challenge vs AmericaOne
4th match Dennis Conner vs Prada Challenge
5th match America True vs Le Defi BTT

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>