SailGP will be taking an unconventional approach to combating an undesirable weather forecast this weekend, with the opening day of racing to be pre-recorded and the results to be kept in-house.
The first leg of this year's series will be held in Bermuda this weekend, with the New Zealand teamled by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke making their SailGP debut.
While the racing is scheduled to be held on Saturday and Sunday (local time), a still forecast for Saturday has forced the competition organisers to make other plans.
The first day of racing will now be held on Friday, however in order to respect their many broadcast agreements in place, the races will still be broadcast in their originally scheduled time slots.
Friday was initially scheduled as an official practice day, which will now be replaced by the actual racing.
"We looked at the forecast and there could be no wind on Saturday during race time," SailGP chief executive Russell Coutts explained to Newstalk ZB's Martin Devlin.
"Yet Friday is an amazing day; it's an amazing forecast so it should be great conditions for the first race day."
Coutts said SailGP had to get in touch with their broadcast partners and ask them whether they would accept a product where the racing took place on Friday but was not broadcast until the dedicated slots with each partner.
"They were all unanimously in favour of it, with a few conditions around it, so that was good. We should have some awesome racing in conditions that look to be between 14 and 20 knots, which is perfect."
SailGP's second season gets underway this weekend. Photo / Getty Images
Coutts said he wasn't worried about the results getting out, though SailGP will not be releasing the results before the races are broadcast.
The New Zealand team will be one of three new additions to the fleet this season alongside Denmark and Spain, racing the experienced campaigners from the UK, USA, Japan, France and reigning champions Australia. China competed in season one but are not involved this time around.
Speaking to the Herald, Blair Tuke said it would be a steep learning curve for the crew as they take to the water on the F50 catamarans this weekend.
"We are racing against the best sailors in the world and a lot of those sailors have spent a considerable amount of time on these boats," Tuke said.
"For us, we have got to try and learn as quickly as we can and develop our roles on the boat to try and catch up to the level they are at.
"For us, the long goal is holding the trophy at the end of season two so we are not coming into the first event here in Bermuda with super high expectations on the overall result. But it's more a learning curve for us to try to develop our systems for the remainder of the season."
