Three races have now been sailed in the 31st America's Cup Match with the Swiss Alinghi challenge holding an upper hand having won all three races.

Race one on Saturday morning didn't last very long but was full of drama with the New Zealand boat suffering a series of failures that led to her retirement from the race after only 25 minutes. These failures included a broken boom, headsail tack and a huge amount of water coming into the boat. Early in the race a crewmember was seen bailing with a very large bucket on the leeward side of the boat. It didn't really look as though he was able to make much impact on the volume of water in the boat he certainly baled hard for a long time.

Race two was the closest fought of the series to date and certainly kept me on the edge of my seat for the duration. Alinghi took an early lead, which they held for most of the first lap. TNZ managed to make a pass on the first downwind leg though and they managed to extend this for the next three legs. Then on the final downwind leg Alinghi managed to make a dramatic pass in the final moments to lead across the finish line by only 7 seconds.

Race three took place this morning and saw Alinghi control and win the start. The Swiss boat seems to be a little more manoeuvrable and has been able to get the side of the start line that they have wanted on every start so far. Alinghi benefited from a big wind shift early in the first beat and really the TNZ crew have only themselves to blame for not picking this. The shift saw Alinghi stretch out an early 7-boat length lead and it was left for TNZ to try and close the gap for the rest of the race. They were fairly effective in doing this at times but failed to ever get close enough to look like they would be able to overtake. The lead never really got less than 15 seconds and Alinghi eventually crossed the finish line 23 seconds ahead of TNZ.

Having watched the whole race it looked to me like TNZ have the slightest boat speed advantage, but it is only a very slight advantage. Alinghi however sail clever and were never in the wrong place on the racecourse. They have won every start so far and look superior in this area too. During the third upwind leg of race three the Alinghi crew were noticeably flustered as TNZ closed to within striking distance. At this time TNZ showed the best of their form but then lost some space on the lay line to the weather mark and through some slightly poor boat handling immediately after the weather mark. They have the potential to put one over Alinghi but whether they get it right remains to be seen.

Race four in the match is scheduled to take place on Thursday morning at 02:00 SA time and will again be televised live on ESPN.

For more information visit the America's Cup web site at www.americascup.yahoo.com.