Louis Vuitton Cup - Finals - Day 2: Preview

Good morning from Valencia where Luna Rossa are now lowering their boat in the water, with just one target, to beat Emirates Team NZ in today's second race of the Louis Vuitton Finals. It's a must-win day for the Italians and suffering another defeat will create a psychological burden let alone the need to make an even greater come back.

Will James Spithill be able to be more aggressive and corner Dean Barker or make him commit an error? It's either that or the call from the Italian challenger's weather team must be flawless and surpass that of their kiwi opponents. Otherwise it's going to be a close race and the New Zealanders have clearly shown they master this kind of game.

In fact as Terry Hutchinson had stated in the press conference on the eve of the races, they have been repeatedly practicing for races where the difference between the two yachts was two boatlengths rather than 20. They race tighter, very closely matching their opponent. As Paul Cayard commented, you don't receive any extra points for winning by a great difference, so if the New Zealanders are ahead they will be happy to win by one meter.

According to the forecast provided by the event organizers, there will be yet another shift to the right today, at least later in the afternoon. Who will get it right?

Weather forecast
It's going to be quite a good day according to the official forecast. We will have more sea breeze, plenty of sunshine but high cloud will move in later. The southeasterly gradient breeze combines with a developing sea breeze to produce 12-14 knots throughout the afternoon and a shift towards south southeast as the day progresses. Once again it will be warm and dry and maximum temperature will reach 24 degrees.