The duel between the world's newest and fastest 30m maxi yachts, Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats XI, began in earnest yesterday with their first offshore encounter. Alfa Romeo took the honours, but her dominance may not continue. "It's early days yet there is nothing in it," said Alfa Romeo's tactician Michael Coxon after the opening races of the Rolex Trophy - Rating Series, sailed in light to moderate sea breezes in a perfect summer's day off Sydney. "We won today because we probably know our boat better, and we know how to get that vital little extra bit out of her," Coxon added, pointing out that they had been racing the Reichel/Pugh 98-footer since August whereas the nearly identical Wild Oats XI had had only one race before today. "They will pick up quickly; there are a lot of smart guys aboard Wild Oats XI."

With the rampant sandstone cliffs to the south of the entrance to Sydney Harbour as a striking backdrop, the first offshore clash of the two 30 metres was the highlight of day one of the four-day Rolex Trophy - Rating Series. The series is itself a significant lead-up to the 628 nautical mile Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race starting on Boxing Day, 26 December.

Alfa Romeo led all the way in the morning race, which got under way in a 7 knot easterly sea breeze after a postponement of 35 minutes, getting the gun by a convincing 1 minute 26 seconds from Wild Oats XI. "We thought we might have been underpowered in the light breeze as Wild Oats has a bigger sailplan, slightly bigger headsails and spinnakers, but we held our own on all legs," Coxon added. With well-known English yachtsman Adrian Stead at the helm in the absence of a sick owner/skipper Neville Crichton, Alfa Romeo won IRC Division O on corrected time from Stephen Ainsworth's Reichel 60, Loki, which sailed an excellent race with Tony Kirby on the helm.  Wild Oats XI, with owner Bob Oatley's regular helmsman Mark Richards on the wheel, placed third on corrected time.

The light morning breeze forced race officials to shorten the course for all divisions, but with the wind backing to the north-east and freshening to 12-15 knots, the second race was sailed in ideal conditions. Mark Richards, at the helm of Wild Oats XI got an excellent start along with the older 30m maxi Konica Minolta from New Zealand, but once again the crew of Alfa Romeo were able to tweak their boat just that much better and by the first windward mark the silver hulled big boat was in front, albeit only by seconds. At the finish of the longer windward/leeward course, she was 1 minute 29 seconds in front, winning the race on corrected time by a most impressive 3 minutes 54 seconds. Loki placed third, 3 minutes 23 seconds further back on corrected time.

Konica Minolta, the only non-canting keel maxi yacht in the fleet, requested the race committee to be reallocated from IRC Division O to IRC Division 1, leaving that division to be all canting keel boats, with the exception of Loki. In the light morning race, Konica Minolta, with Gavin Brady on the helm placed only 5th in race one but in the fresher afternoon race improved to win on corrected time from Geoff Ross's Judel /mVrolijk 52 Yendys, which won the morning race. Yendys won race one from Dick Cawse's Cawse / Lyons 60 Vanguard, third going to Syd Fischer's Farr 50 Ragamuffin. Vanguard placed third in race two.
 

Aside from Alfa Romeo, the other double winner today was Quantum Racing, Ray Roberts' DK46 which scored two convincing wins in IRC Division 1 for lower rating boats. With skipper Roberts sailing his third major regatta in 10 days (the Kings Cup at Phuket in Thailand and in the Rolex Trophy - One Design Series in his Farr 40) he set an imprint on this series, twice beating Leslie Green's well-performed Swan 45 Ginger on corrected time. In race one, third place went to Bill Lennon and Paul Roberts' ILC 40 Fuzzy Logic from Melbourne, in race two, third went to the Queensland boat Wedgetail,  owned by Bill Wild and steered today by Vanessa Dudley.

Quantum Racing had an early drama that could well have cost the boat its wins. The mainsail headboard was left in the boat's locker at the CYCA but a frantic mobile phone to marina manager Frank Bergmann saw the missing part put on board the media boat Polaris. "The headboard had been in on our twilight mainsail and was left ashore - a yellow card has gone to (tactician) Steve McConaghy), skipper Roberts explained. "We had lashed the mainsail to the mast but once the breeze freshened it would not have held. We were lucky the media boat had not headed out and then by the fact that the race start was delayed," said Roberts, adding: "It was champagne sailing out there today."

After the first two races of the Rolex Trophy - Rating Series,  the Alfa Romeo maxi heads the leader board in the IRC Division O with 2 points, from Loki and Wild Oats XI who are both on 5 points. Yendys leads Division 1 with 3 points from Vanguard  5 points and Konica Minolta 6 points while in Division 2 Quantum Racing heads the scores with 2 points from Ginger on 4 points and Fuzzy Logic on 7 points. Progressive PHS results for Division 0/1 see three boats equal first on 6 points - Alfa Romeo, Flirt (Chris Dare) and Yendys while in the PHS Division,  Ginger leads with 3 points from Fuzzy Logic and Quantum Racing each with 5 points.