ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami - Weather halts racing action

by ISAF on 30 Jan 2014 At the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Miami, sailors and their coaches made the most of their down time for the third consecutive day, as rain showers and little breeze put a dampen on the racing outlook on Wednesday. The light air theme so far this week has forced sailors to use their extended onshore hours to acclimate to the conditions and adjust their equipment accordingly.

The 10 Olympic and three Paralympic fleets finally launched at around 12:30 local time under cloudy skies and light breeze at three to five knots, with slight optimism that the wind would fill in this afternoon, similar to Monday and Tuesday. However, at approximately 14:00, all fleets abandoned any hope of racing and returned to shore for the day. All week, sailors have put a strong focus on boat positioning to harness what little breeze has been available on the course. Lighter crews have had the upper hand so far on Biscayne Bay.

Earlier Wednesday morning, several coaches held debriefs from Tuesday's racing. Men's 470 skipper Dillon Paiva (USA) said, 'We went over several photos of 470 teams who were going well in the light air. We compared their sail shapes and set-ups. We are doing everything we can to prep for this type of racing.'

The forecast for Wednesday night includes a large band of showers and squalls moving across South Florida. For Thursday, rain showers are predicted and some models showing breeze out of the North with nine to tweve knots of pressure. Another model shows unstable breeze all day around three Event website