The much anticipated opening race of the 34th America’s Cup did not disappoint in any way shape or form with the two AC72 crews hurling themselves at each other like heavyweight prize fighters for the entire five leg, 25-minute race.

With virtually no discernible difference in boatspeed the race was ultimately decided on the skills of the respective tacticians and the nerve of the two helmsmen with the Dean Barker/Ray Davies combo performing better when it counted to overpower Spithill/Kostecki to take the win.

After a quiet prestart in which Dean Barker lined up to windward and slightly bow forward the two teams had to burn off time in the final 30 seconds to the gun. Barker’s time on distance was better and he pulled the trigger at ten seconds to go to power forward and cross the line a quarter of a length ahead of Spithill.

Overlapped to leeward at the three boat length zone of the first turning mark, Spithill tried a spectacular high speed luff on Barker as he set up for the bear away. Kicking up clouds of spray, Oracle’s bows swung perilously close across the Kiwi’s stern but the umpires quickly rejected Spithill’s penalty request.

ETNZ were the first to gybe on the run leaving the American team to power down parallel to the left hand boundary of the course off the San Francisco city front for another 20 seconds before also gybing.

When the first cross came shortly after the Kiwis squeaked across ahead, but by only 50 metres.

When the pair gybed again around a minute and a half later the second cross was down to  what looked like just a few metres – an impression magnified by a big bow up movement from Spithill to try to illicit a penalty for Barker. Seconds later however the umpires rejected this one too.

Oracle pushed on all the way to the port layline for the right hand leeward gate and the Kiwis had to pull off a perfect gybe directly in their path to cut them off. This left just a few feet between the boats as they rounded the gate mark and with Oracle steaming in the fastest a bow to stern collision looked inevitable as Spithill tried once more to give Barker a penalty.

As Oracle tore through to leeward less than 10 feet away from the ETNZ boat, Barker was forced to tack away towards the city front. This left Spithill clear to sail on closer to the Alcatraz cone of tidal relief before tacking to towards the shore. When they tacked the advantage line to Barker was just 35 metres.

Spithill steadily ground down that advantage so that when Barker was forced to tack at the left hand boundary the two boats were bow to bow and the Kiwis had to concede the lead with a bear away around the American boat’s stern.

A few minutes later however the roles were reversed when Spithill tacked at the boundary and had to take Barker’s stern on port tack. This proved to be the turning point in the race as Kiwi tactician Ray Davies now had total control over his opposite number local boy John Kostecki. So much so in fact that when Davies called a pinpoint accurate tack on the port layline to the right hand buoy of the windward gate, all Kostecki could do was to tack in the Kiwi’s wake and trail the New Zealander’s by 25 seconds at the top of the final run.

Barker and Davies didn’t put a foot wrong on the penultimate leg and despite Spithill sailing what looked like a better VMG course for much of it, they were well ahead at the final turning mark and went on to a 36 second win.

After the heart stoping thrills and spills of the first race, the second match up was a more sedate affair with the only excitement a collision in the prestart when Spithill came in from behind and to leeward to try and hook the Kiwis outside the starboard end start mark.

The umpires quickly dismissed this however and Barker pulled off another inch perfect start, leading over the line and pulling ahead of the American boat on the first reach. Their lead at the first turning mark was just two seconds.

From then on the Kiwis always in control with Davies nailing all his laylines Barker able to match any mode Spithill tried to put his boat in to try to get past.

The delta at the finish – 52 seconds to Emirates Team New Zealand.

Without a doubt this was the best action we have seen in the America’s Cup so far and by by a long long way. Were the boats equal or did the Kiwis have a slight advantage around the course? Hard to say even now but for sure there was never a point where the Kiwis looked slower. Add to that some superior tactical decisions and slicker crew work by Barkers crew and there you have the story of the day.

Emirates Team New Zealand now lead the series by two races to zero in the potentially 19 race series. A two point penalty handed down by the international jury last week after Oracle Team USA were found guilty of rule breaking in the America’s Cup World Series means that they need to score 11 race wins while ETNZ need just nine race wins.

Races three and four of the America’s Cup Final are scheduled for tomorrow starting at 13.10 local time.

I think the crew work on team New Zealand was a little smoother all the way around the racecourse; giving the impression that the New Zealanders have a faster boat; which may be the case.

PHOTOS FROM TODAY: HERE