Louis Vuitton Cup - Round Robin 1 - Day 9: Preview

Update 10:45am - This has just been announced by the race committee: The Race Committee for the Louis Vuitton Cup has signaled a postponement ashore on Tuesday, 24 April to all competitors. The Race Committee anticipates that there may be racing today, and will advise competitors of any change of signal if it intends to conduct racing on this date.

The ninth day of the Louis Vuitton Cup starts with a marginally more optimistic wind forecast, but still nothing to write home about. Even if the breeze reaches the magical 7 knots (minimum by the rules to start an America's Cup race) it will be short lived and unlikely to permit much racing. As we wrote yesterday, it is not warm enough to have a stronger sea breeze and the gradient winds flowing in the same direction cancel it.

The race schedule is the same as yesterday and as a result the match between Mascalzone Capitalia and Desafío Español will once again be our main interest. It seems highly unlikely we will have a second flight raced, so the clash between BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa will be for another day.

Weather forecast
The official forecast from the America's Cup organizers is a bit more optimistic today. According to it we now have a better chance of a sea breeze building. The day will be warm and dry. As far as the wind is concerned they expect a light easterly gradient 4-6 knots, veering to southeast late in the afternoon, possibly increasing to 6-8 knots. A day with clear skies but less wind at altitude means a greater chance of sea breeze development.