Mistake-prone Oracle Team trails 1-0

Kiwis win first two races in bid to reclaim Auld Mug.

HAMILTON, BERMUDA — In light, shifty winds on the Great Sound, Peter Burling and Emirates Team New Zealand made fewer mistakes than Jimmy Spithill and Oracle Team USA and won the first two races of the 35th America’s Cup.

It wasn’t the cleanest start to sailing’s biggest regatta, leaving more questions than answers as the teams returned to their bases to plan their strategies.

Although they won twice, by 30 seconds and 1 minute, 28 seconds, the Kiwis lead just 1-0. Oracle earned a bonus point for winning the qualifiers, but it was actually a negative point for the Kiwis, so the first-race win merely erased that. That means they need to win eight races total to spirit the Auld Mug back to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, where it resided from 1995 until 2003. Oracle needs to win seven to keep the silver trophy in the hands of American software billionaire Larry Ellison.

“We’re under no illusions,” said Burling, 26. “All the people in the shed back at the base are already going over the boat and trying to get little bits of speed to start throwing at these guys.”

The 2013 America’s Cup proved no lead is safe.

This is a rematch of that epic regatta, when Team New Zealand reached match point at 8-1 before Oracle Team USA won eight straight races to retain the oldest trophy in international sports.

Still, this isn’t the start Oracle expected.

“It was obviously a tough day,” Spithill said. “Clearly we weren’t sailing at our best. But we had our opportunities. The good news is, we’re only one back.”

For a few dramatic minutes Saturday, Spithill was close to salvaging a split. Oracle benefited from a wind shift sailing upwind on leg five in the second race and made up a huge deficit, pulling right behind the Kiwis sailing through the gate mark. But its 50-foot catamaran came off its foils and buried its bows in the water, allowing the Kiwis to speed back ahead and open a lead of more than 300 yards.

CLIVE MASON / GETTY IMAGES Oracle Team USA could not salvage a split in Saturday’s competition, as its catamaran faltered in the second race against Team New Zealand.