‘There is no second’ is reputedly what Queen Victoria was told after she enquired which yacht followed the schooner America across the line in 1851.

Well today we watched history in the making and there was a second, precisely one second, between the winner and loser of the 32nd America’s Cup. In a race when the lead changed more times than in the whole of the previous three Cup Matches, when Emirates Team New Zealand laid to rest the rumour that she was slower than Alinghi in stronger winds and in which we saw the most amazing wind shifts at the end, Alinghi, almost dead in the water, squeeze across the line a second ahead of ETNZ, the latter having just completed her penalty turn.

Whilst all congratulations must go to Alinghi for their campaign, which finally showed that they were not invulnerable, commiserations for the Kiwis. And you can be sure that had ETNZ won there would have been more talk about Las Vegas and Tiddlywinks (see my earlier blog) from the Swiss camp.