America's Cup Rialto: September 7 - Stormy start, fine finish for Defiant
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/NZ 7 Sep 2020 22:42 PDT
8 September 2020
American Magic - Waitemata Harbour - September 7, 2020 - 36th America's Cup © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
On Monday, American Magic trained for the third successive day in top of the range winds.
Defiant left the dock around 1100hrs, just as a rain squall that had been hanging around Auckland decided to make its presence felt on the Waitemata Harbour.
The US America's Cup challenger towed out on her foils, in poor visibility with some crew visible on deck - who were hopefully clad in gold-standard wet weather gear. The cold 30kt wind was accompanied by driving near-horizontal rain.
Defiant headed out through the Rangitoto Channel and were soon out of sight. But true to usual form the Auckland weather cleared, with the breeze moderating, and skies clearing.
Due to other commitments we were unable to view the training session, other than for the closing stanzas.