33rd America's Cup - Race 1 - Preview: Postponement ashore

It's Tuesday, 10pm in Valencia and our preview of the 33rd America's Cup's 1st race isn't encouraging. Harold Bennett, Principal Race Officer, announced he will hold the yachts ashore for an additional two hours since the rescheduled race will not take place before Wednesday noon. A combination of strong winds and rough seas will make it difficult to hold the race before noon.

Bennett explained that the race committee "has issued an amendment that there will be no signal before midday tomorrow (Wednesday). We will make a further assessment at 0830hrs in the morning. So we will have a look at what it is like early in the morning. We will take a check then. There are a lot of strong winds forecast overnight and offshore and that is going to throw up a swell. So it is more the sea-state that is going to be of concern. Until we see what the sea state is we are not going to guess. I don’t want to put the boats out there if they are not going to sail. I do not want to put them all the way out there and bring them back without a race. Talking with the weather guys from both teams they agree that this is what we are going to get, so it is a fairly easy decision to make."

Wind forecast
The latest MeteoSim wind forecasts (made on Tuesday, 10pm) for Wednesday 10am and 2pm are not encouraging at all. If they turn out to be correct, we will either have too much wind or too little, all around the place. It will probably be another difficult day for the race committee and spectators.

Wind forecast (made on Tuesday, 10pm) for Wednesday 10am. Copyright MeteoSim

Wind forecast (made on Tuesday, 10pm) for Wednesday 2pm. Copyright MeteoSim