Today sees the first day of full-on racing for the first Preliminary Regatta of the 37th America’s Cup.
After Thursday’s pratice racing it’s time to deliver for the professional sailors. Emirates Team New Zealand were dominant in the marginal foiling conditions of the Practice Races and all eyes are on the weather today with possible offshore storms that could interrupt the airflow on the racecourse.
After a less than convincing performance Thursday, Ben Ainslie, Skipper of INEOS Britannia, admitted that they had plenty of catching up to do, and the British AC40 team spent an extra hour and a half after the racing out on the water looking at some control and manoeuvre issues.
This is not an unusual situation for the INEOS Britannia team, looking back to the previous America’s Cup early rounds, but these are one-design AC40s.
Let’s hope Ainslie can find the magic he produced to snatch victory at the recent SailGP event.
Race Director Iain Murray, in a briefing this morning, has proposed using Course 6 which is a three-lap course with 0.95 nautical mile legs or Course 4 which is a two lap race with legs of 1.4 nautical miles.
Racing is scheduled for Friday 15, Saturday 16, and Sunday 17 September from 15:30 to 17:30 CEST.
Vilanova Preliminary Regatta Format
The first two days will comprise of three fleet races each day. The third day will have two fleet races making a possible total of eight fleet races.
The top two teams from the fleet racing will progress to the winner-takes-all final match race to decide the ultimate winner of the event.
Related Post:
America’s Cup first Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova from 14-17 September
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