Luna Rossa upsets Oracle in semifinal series opener

Shifting winds thwarted BMW Oracle Racing’s USA 98 on Monday, when the American boat, which had finished second in round-robin racing, was upset by Italy’s Luna Rossa as the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup sailing series began.

Luna Rossa won by 2 minutes 19 seconds over the new, longer three-mile course. Emirates Team New Zealand, the leader by a point after two rounds of round-robin racing, also won, beating Desafio Espanol of Spain by 43 seconds.

The four remaining boats are sailing best-of-nine series.

By virtue of its first-place standing, New Zealand got to pick its semifinal opponent and chose the fourth-place Spanish boat, leaving Oracle to battle third-place Luna Rossa.

Semifinal winners will sail off for the right to challenge Swiss defender Alinghi for the America’s Cup, sailing’s premier trophy, next month.

“Wind shifts were the name of the game today, that’s for sure,” navigator Peter Isler of BMW Oracle said. “The big problem was, we had the danger of the whole race course exploding and going topsy-turvy, as it did on the final leg.”

Luna Rossa started fast and built up a 52-second lead at the first mark, but the U.S. boat had cut the lead to seven seconds by the halfway point.

Then Luna Rossa surged ahead again on the second upwind leg, and when the U.S. boat attacked on the closing downwind leg, a wind shift left USA 98 sailing upwind while the Italian boat was crossing the finish line under spinnaker.