Second day of the 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta, in Cagliari, looks set to provide similar conditions with a building afternoon breeze estimated to be in the 11-16 knot range, and a building sea-state.
Friday, the sea state was an issue for all the teams, especially as the afternoon wore on and we saw some dramatic incidents on the downwind legs with loose gybes off the boundaries and plenty of nose-diving.
Saturday’s sea-state is again set to build on the back of wind-chop with averages in the opening races of around 0.3m but by the end of the afternoon.
Race Director Iain Murray said in the briefing this morning that we could again see wave heights of around 0.7 metres with a short, 4 second period that will again make manoeuvres tricky – especially downwind.
Saturday will again feature three races starting at 14:10 BST (15.10 Cagliari time). By the end of the day, after six races, we will have a very clear indication of who is really in contention for the overall title.
Teams are allowed to request one delay ‘card’ of 5 minutes and Chief Umpire Richard Slater confirmed that we have seen GB1, Athena Pathway and Luna Rossa 2 play that option Friday due to technical reasons.
That leaves the rest of the fleet still with a delay card option but removes the option for those teams going forward through the weekend.
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AC38 Preliminary Regatta – Luna Rossa teams dominate first day in Cagliari
