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Regatta Director Iain Murray warned of a possible delay in the opening of the Prada Cup final due to light winds hitting the Auckland countryside on Saturday.
Team INEOS from the UK and Luna Rossa from Italy are scheduled to start the best of 13 racing series at 4.12pm
But the wind forecast for that time period could struggle to exceed the required lower limit of 6.5 knots with Murray explaining that a morning southeast wind was holding back the expected breeze that will build up in the northeast and eventually hold. stable.
COR 36 | Borlenghi study
Luna Rossa and INEOS Team UK have been getting closer during practice for the Prada Cup final.
The forecast around 5.15pm was that a northeast knot of 8-11 knots would be established, reaching 14 knots at 18.00, which is the limit to start a race.
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“I think we’ll race today,” Murray said in his morning briefing on Saturday, “but there may be a delay if the wind doesn’t build up in time.
The northeast wind direction has seen Murray take the opening action towards Course A, the northernmost course further up the north shore of Auckland.
That will see the fleet of spectators anchored at the edge of the Rangitoto Island field.
The six-stage races are scheduled, although they could be shortened to four stages if the wind remains light.
The light conditions could favor Luna Rossa, who has been strong throughout the race at that end of the wind zone.
Light gaits have been the Achilles heel of the British, and they have worked hard for the past three weeks to try to fix it.
The fascination for Saturday’s races will be to see if they have made Britannia more competitive in the lower wind range.
If there is time to have only one race on Saturday, the postponed race will run on Sunday, with a three-race schedule.
“Tomorrow is a little more breezy, it looks like a lovely day,” Murray said.
Abigail Dougherty / Stuff
Iain Murray, America’s Cup Race Director.
Meanwhile, with the time-out card being back in play, allowing teams to delay the start by 15 minutes to fix a boat issue, it looks like it could be used as a tactic.
Murray confirmed that if races are delayed, a team could request the 15-minute timeout just before 6 p.m., forcing the race to be postponed until the next day.
Don’t be surprised to see the British opt for that if the winds stay light and the races are delayed.
The improved forecast on Sunday would suit them better and the prospect of even stronger winds for the resumption of races on Wednesday and Friday will please the INEOS UK team.
Murray confirmed that the race management system, which relays the details of the course to the race boats, was working “perfectly” after some coordination problems with the teams during the January action.
It had been tested again on Friday with the New Zealand team joining the two remaining challengers in a training session at Course E in Maraetai.
The boats went through 12 practice starts.
The quiet word is that the New Zealand team was looking really fast.
