Larry Ellison was racing in the America's Cup trials at the weekend and managed to win an unexpected victory.

Ellison has been one of the key players in transforming the America's Cup from a four yearly competition to a continuous regatta of competing teams. On Monday the BMW/Oracle racing boat, on which the software company has lavished €100 million, managed to beat the widely favoured New Zealand team thanks to some aggressive tactics and a broken jib sheet which crippled the Kiwis on the final lap.

Larry turned up to the regatta, held in the Baltic off Malmo in Sweden, in his 400+ft yacht. The vessel is the product of a long running feud between him and Jim Clark, formerly of Netscape over who has the biggest toys.

Sadly your correspondent didn't get to see much of the man in person, since the second the race was over he abandoned ship, jumped into a speed boat and was off to his floating gin palace as it's less than affectionately known around the America's Cup paddock.

(brought to you from SV Sleuth's European correspondent)

Oracle (left) jockeys for position

After the race Ellison made a quick escape back to his yacht, leaving his team to clean up the mess he left down under.

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tags: oralce, larry ellison