Racing postponed on wild day in Valencia

by Desafío Español 2007 Media on 23 May 2007
The Louis Vuitton Cup race scheduled for today between Desafío Español 2007 and New Zealand will have to wait until tomorrow. The seventh day of the semifinals has been suspended due to excessive wind and waves.

The Regatta Commission decided to suspend the regatta at about 12:30. On the subject, Joan Aymaní, a member of the Meteorological team and the director of Meteosim, the technological collaborator, commented that 'the weather forecast shows a wind of 22-24 knots, which could increase to 30 knots, accompanied by waves of more than two metres every 2.5 seconds.'

Desafío Español 2007's meteorological team is made up of 5 people, co-ordinated by Maximo Casares, who carry out simulations every six hours to analyse the weather conditions 'however, the tactical decisions on the boat are made in real time since the communication with the meteorological launches are cut off five minutes before the regatta begins.'

Jordi Lamarca, the Spanish team's regulation expert, commented that the Commission had made the correct decision on suspending today's regatta, 'it is a very reasonable commission and with the right criterium, I congratulate them'. 'The height of the waves and their frequency gives rise to the risk of breakages. Also, the wind and waves are coming directly from the canal and therefore the boats are unable to leave the port', added Lamarca.

The America's Cup boats are such that they can suffer breakages with such large waves and winds over 20 knots. Gonzalo Férnandez de Velasco, Head of Maintenance for the boats, said that 'the problem that exists when there are large waves, is that the boat is weighed down and especially the anchorage of the keel can suffer.'

Tomorrow it is expected that meteorological conditions will be of 14-16 knots accompanied by waves.