Prada Cup: Day 6 Preview - Course A - Semi-Finals - end of AC36 regatta for USA?
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 29 Jan 2021 14:30 PST
29 January 2021
American Magic - Patriot - Waitemata Harbour - January 29, 2021 - 36th America's Cup © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
For Day 6 of the Prada Cup, and the second day of Semi-Finals, the course will move back out into the Rangitoto Channel and will be sailed off Takapuna and Milford Beach.
The forecast is for 10-11kts from 030 degrees - near enough to North East. That means that the Course C could be affected by Rangitoto Island, which erupted only 640 years ago, and is a large 5.5sq land mass of volcanic which heats up on a hot day adding a wall of rising heat. The island is a symmetrical volcanic cone 260metres or 850ft in height, and dominates the Auckland skyline - and on days like today, dominates the wind on the Stadium Course.
The move of the course location could work the way of American Magic skipper, Dean Barker who has sailed extensively in this location as a junior sailor, in Lasers and Finns, and more recently with Team New Zealand who prior to 2017 used this area as their principal training ground.
Barker grew up on Milford beach, in a house that overlooked today's race area.
Moving the course sideways to the north of Rangitoto should help bring a steadier breeze.
Oddly enough coming up to noon in Auckland the breeze is showing as being in from the NE and reasonably stable in strength at just over 4kts. But at Rangitoto lighthouse the measuring point nearest to the proposed course area the wind is showing as blowing at 4.5kts from the west. Whether Rangitoto remains an outlier remains to be seen.
The other outlier is at Channel Island at the entrance to the Hauraki Gulf, the breeze is in at 19kts gusting 25kts from the SE.
Over on the Manukau Harbour on Auckland's west coat the breeze is in at 4-5kts and from a NE direction, indicating that a typical weather scenario of two opposing seabreezes should not occur today.
Today is a crucial day for American Magic, who are have yet to trouble the scorer in the Prada Cup Semi-Final, while their rival, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli scored two of the four wins they need to progress to the Final. If the Italians pick up another two wins today, the US team from the New York Yacht Club will exit the regatta.
But of course if American Magic manage to score a win in the first race, the situation will change completely, and particularly so if they win both races. Light winds are forecast again for tomorrow, Sunday
Semi Final, Race 3 Luna Rossa (ITA) vs American Magic (USA) starting at 3.15pm NZDT
Semi Final, Race 4 American Magic (USA) vs Luna Rossa (ITA) starting at 4.15pm NZDT
The lower wind limit for racing is 6.5kts based on a rolling average over 30 seconds measured between 9 minutes and 4 minutes before the start. The upper wind limit is not expected to come into play today. The winds limits are adjusted for tidal flow, however this is expected to produce only a.3kt influence given that the racing is taking place close to slack water, with negligible tidal influence.
How to follow the racing:
From my Spy Guide (covering all vantage points which I have been using to follow the AC75's since September 2019) you can guage the best sites for viewing from shore - binoculars are recommended but not necessary:
Course A: Takapuna Beach/Boating Club, or any of the beaches north to Campbells Bay. Kennedy Park just after you exit Castor Bay and before Campbells Bay offers a good cliff top view. At Kennedy Park walk back along the clifftop towards Castor Bay until the cliff foliage clears and you should get a panoramic view of the race.
Devonport Wharf - easy parking but no real views past North Head: Course C
Torpedo Wharf - good parking, good views and a shed to shelter in - but you can't see up the Rangitoto Channel - Course C
North Head - lower is better - Course C
Takapuna Grammar - Course B and C
Eastern Beach - just look on Google maps - Course E
Musick Point - look on the street views of Google maps there is a road through the Golf Course - with a car park at the top, park there and walk through to your right, there is a clearing there opening right up onto Tamaki Strait and Waiheke. Should take 40 minutes in light fast traffic. - Course E
Live spectator location and Course Diagram for Semi-Finals - Day 1
You can track your live location in relation to the spectator perimeter two ways:
The America's Cup website: americascup.com/en/spectators-perimeter
The Predict Wind App or website: download the App
Race Course details and the spectator location finder are updated every race day at 11:00 and are Live until 18:00. Outside of these hours the location finder will not work. For this service to work please ensure the GPS location is enabled on your device.
The Auckland City Guide as as follows:
Courses A, B and C will provide great viewing for people on North Shore.
Course A - good viewing to be had from Milford and Takapuna beaches.
Course B - Cheltenham Beach, Narrow Neck Beach, Maungauika North Head
Course C - Maungauika North Head, Bastion Point, Tamaki Yacht Club and Mission Bay
Course D - Southeastern beaches will be the place to watch, with locations including Achilles Point and Glover Park
Course E - Action on this course is within sight of Maraetai and Musick Point.
Getting around during the 36th America's Cup
It will be busy, so plan ahead get there early and allow plenty of time for travel. The 36th America's Cup Village, located at the start of Hobson Wharf will be open on Race days - 9am-11pm; Non race days -10am-10pm Public holidays - 10am-9pm.
For the best transport links and for all info click here
Listen via radio - highly recommended to get the best on shore viewing experience
Radio for Prada Cup and the Match AC 36 Auckland 2021
There are two options - all with commentary by the world's leading America's Cup broadcast commentator, Peter Montgomery and two co-commentators. They are not on the water but are in a studio with all the essential feeds and are real-time (no delay or latency on AM radio)
Online with iHeartRadio (an internet App Note downloadable from the Playstore (Android) or AppStore (Apple).
This App will work anywhere in the world - but online there is a time lag of around 30 - 40 seconds.
New Zealand only, there is a in real time commentary, with terrestrial Radio.
For the Prada Cup and the Match
Online with iHeartRadio
Search for iHeartRadio then enter GOLD AM
Auckland in real time you need a Radio.
Tuned to GOLD AM 1332, previously the frequency for Radio Sport (or on Gold AM old Radio Sport round rest of NZ)
Then for the Match also NEWSTALK ZB FM 89.4 AM 1080
Television coverage in New Zealand is Live on TV1 starting at 2.00pm
On the Internet live coverage is available on Sail-World's home page www.sail-world.com.
For those who have been geo-blocked, an experienced sailing journalist will be updating regularly on Sail-World.com/nz on the progress of the racing along with comments picked up from the TV feed. Sail-World has the only sailing photo/journalist on the water, and the report will be further updated after the conclusion of the racing to provide an accurate record and independent record of the day.
Video coverage is generally is available on Youtube and search for/subscribe to America's Cup
Or from the America's Cup website www.americascup.com
Some countries may be geo-blocked due to TV rights issues. You can usually get around these by a VPN (Virtual Private Network) piece of software which will mask your location. Or download the Opera browser and view through that - which is understood to contain its own VPN.
Here is the download link - we ave used Opera only for a few days, it seems to be very good www.opera.com/features/free-vpn
The explanation for countries which are geo-blocked (mainly USA) is as follows:
On NBC Sports, the schedule is as follows (no extra paid subscription needed):
6 days of PRADA Cup live
10 days are same day delay
1 day is next day delayed
The first two days of the Match will be live
The next two days will be same day delay - delayed by an hour for scheduling reasons
The final three days are TBD
Generally, the delayed broadcasts are because of wider scheduling issues with other sports events.
NBC Sports carries the ACTV 'World Feed' and the schedule gets stronger as the competition progresses- including Friday night 9pm Live on NBC Sports on both of the next two weekends.
With regard to NBC Gold (paid extra)- every race is live (World Feed) as well as multi feeds.
*Note we have no control of what they charge for the NBC Gold
With regard to YouTube in the US:
All highlights are available as soon as produced and posted each day.
However the full live racing is delayed by 48 hours.
Basically Live racing and highlights coverage is available on americascup.com in all markets where YouTube operates, except for those covered by the NBC arrangement outlined above. And I am purposely not going into detail on broadcast territories because every other territory the digital streaming rights are separated and available to all LIVE no matter what broadcaster is showing it.
Press Conferences: Live streamed on YouTube without restriction anywhere. These start about an hour after the completion of racing.