America's Cup - Stronger breeze expected for Day 2 of the 35th Match

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com on 18 Jun 2017 All forecasts are for the breeze to be from the same direction but slightly stronger than for the first day of racing where Emirates Team New Zealand emerged with two wins, to lead the series.

The wind will be from an easterly direction again, rather than the usual SW which is the regulation wind direction for Bermuda. In other words, the wind will blow across the Great Sound, rather than down its length.

Predictwind.com has the breeze at 10-14kts from the East at the scheduled start time of 2.12pm today, with the breeze expected to drop to 9-13kts for the second race.

That should be a more comfortable range for Oracle Team USA, and it is expected that the racing will be a lot more even that it was on Saturday (local time) where Emirates Team New Zealand had a definite boatspeed advantage.

Both Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA made significant mistakes yesterday, bringing their AC50's to a complete standstill downwind. The Kiwis stumbled in the first race at Mark 6 with the finish line in site - conceding 90 secs to a fast finishing Oracle Team USA. Oracle Team USA let Emirates Team NZ off the hook in a second race after closing down a big lead but fell off their foils early on the final run allowing the Kiwis to fly to an easy win.

It appeared on both occasions that the teams fell into a hole in the wind at the same time they fluffed a foiling gybe, lost their apparent wind, and struggled to get foil-borne.

Today the breeze is not expected to be so funky, however typically in Bermuda so far this regatta the wind does tend to be stronger in the morning than it is in the afternoon.