Oracle struggles once more as Team Origin wins for Britain

The trouncing of America's Cup holder BMW Oracle continued in the opening foray of yesterday's races for the 1851 Cup. Already leading 2-0, Britain's Team Origin scored their third win by a margin of 48 seconds.

Meanwhile, on a Cowes Week day that saw brisk wind, pouring rain, hail and sunshine, Origin supporter Charles Dunstone, with New Zealander Ray Davies as tactician, lifted the New York Yacht Club Challenge Cup in his 52-foot Rio.

In the 88-strong X One Design class, Neil Payne took over at the top of the standings in Lizz Whizz after the previous leader, Stuart Jardine, added a 16th to Tuesday's 32nd, pushing him back to fourth overall. But there was no stopping the unrelated pairing of Graham Bailey and Stephen Bailey, who remain unbeaten in the Etchells class with five straight wins.

As Mitch Booth withdrew from the Extreme 40 series with a cracked forward beam, Yann Guichard won a morning five-mile race in Groupe Edmond de Rothschild.

On the second leg of the Artemis Challenge from Gijon to Brest, Britain's Jonny Malbon was 43rd going into the second night at sea.

Today, the forecasters expect 12 to 15 knots from the north-west for the 1851 Cup on a course which takes Team Origin and BMW Oracle round the Isle of Wight clockwise, as did the fleet in 1851 when the New York Yacht Club's schooner, America, beat the best that Britain could muster and captured what became the America's Cup.

Chris Stanmore-Major and Simon Chalk, will each carry the British flag in the Velux 5 Oceans single-handed round the world race which starts from La Rochelle on 17 October.