America's Cup - Racing set to proceed on Day 6

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com on 1 Jun 2017 Racing is expected to get underway on time on the Great Sound at the scheduled start time of 2.00pm.

There will be four races sailed - as rostered for yesterday when a promising breeze faded at start time and was abandoned after 4.00pm.

Winds yesterday were just under the minimum - averaging 4.9kts and peaking at 6.6kts. The minimum for racing is 6kts for a 30-second average.

When the plug was pulled on racing, they were down to an average of 2.7kts and 5.4kts peak.

Today Race Director Iain Murray says he is expecting winds of kts to 11kts. The direction has reversed from yesterday - being from the SW and blowing down the Great Sound from the direction of Hamilton.

Unfortunately, we are seeing a similar pattern to yesterday with actual wind readings here in the Royal Dockyard when the teams are based flicking around an average of 6.7kts and peaking at 9kts.

That is right on the edge of the minimum wind limit and the prognosis from the Race Director for that strength to only increase by a single knot at start time.

The Red Bull Youth America's Cup teams have again been out sailing this morning - as they did yesterday.

Latest official wind reports are showing that the wind has eased a little and is now (two hours before the start at 2.00pm) right on the minimum where racing could take place.

Major diversion of the day was the searching of the seabed by four military divers outside the media centre (which is well away from the teams) - but it is the venue for the end of race media conference at which all competing skippers attend. It is not known whether they were doing rubbish collection, or looking for something more sinister.