Too much wind for Louis Vuitton today

by Nzoom on 14 Dec 2002 Gale force winds out on the Hauraki Gulf has caused racing to be abandoned for the second day in a row in the Louis Vuitton Cup on Saturday.

The race committee headed out to the blue course on Saturday morning to find the the wind well above the 19 knot limit so they moved to the closer green course, but to no avail.

Sunday's race could potentially be the last of the year for Russell Coutts' Alinghi crew, as they need just one more win over Oracle BMW Racing to advance directly to the finals in January.

Chris Dickson replaced Peter Holmberg on the helm of USA76 for the second time in the regatta on Thursday and he has not ruled out steering again.

'Maybe. We just take the decision day by day,' Dickson said.

In the quarterfinal series Alinghi's opponent Prada were also three nil down and chose not to sail their final race, to give them more time to prepare for the repechage, but Dickson said Oracle will not be standing down.

'We certainly will not be conceding the last race until we cross the finish line,' Dickson said. 'We know it's a tough ask but we've had two out of three races where we thought we were in with a very good shot.'

Meanwhile, the battle is fierce in the single-chance pairing of OneWorld and Prada.

The Americans have won two races on the water to the Italians one, but the scoreline is tied at 1-all due to the one-point penalty imposed by the arbitration panel earlier in the week.

Source: www.nzoom.co.nz