CEO and skipper Chris Dickson has resigned from the BMW ORACLE Racing team four days after his team fell to Luna Rossa in the Semi Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. The resignation is effective immediately. Team owner Larry Ellison has announced his intention to participate in the 33rd America’s Cup. The question is now who is going to lead Oracle's next campaign: Gavin Brady or Russell Coutts?
The Semi Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup were a study in contrasts. The calm, cool, conservative New Zealanders were stretched in dispatching a stubbornly effective Spanish team. Meanwhile, the fiery Luna Rossa Challenge, on the basis of start-line terror James Spithill’s pre-starts and tactician Torben Grael’s bold calls, easily eliminated BMW ORACLE Racing. Now these two – the Kiwis and the Italians – will meet in the ‘first to five’ Final.
