America's Cup: Challenger fleet becalmed by light winds, racing postponed

No sailing today at the America's Cup challenger series off Bermuda. Photo/America's Cup

Light winds have forced the postponement of racing at the Louis Vuitton America's Cup challenger series for the second time this week off Bermuda.

After two hours waiting for winds to reach a six-knot average threshold for racing, organisers finally pulled the pin just after 7am NZT and teams returned to dock.

"It is obviously not ideal that we have to postpone races, but that is precisely why we have spare race days in the schedule," said regatta director Iain Murray.

"Mother Nature is fickle, it is as simple as that, and since time immemorial, sailors have had to contend with light and strong winds.

"After four fabulous days of perfect conditions, today was our turn to deal with the light winds. I am, though, confident we will be back racing tomorrow."

Today's schedule will now likely take place on tomorrow's lay day, with Emirates Team NZ set to face Ben Ainslie Racing (GBR) in the second race. Racing on opening day last Saturday (NZT) was also called off 24 hours early, due to forecast light winds.

But the forecasts for tomorrow seem no better than today and NZME America's Cup expert and former Team NZ weather analyst Mark Orams suggests we may again struggle for racing.

"The PredictWind forecast for tomorrow is for even lighter winds than today's," he says. "The four wind forecast models show the following for race start time tomorrow:

PWG model: 1-3 knots
PWE model: 7-8 knots
GFS model: 4-5 knots
ECMWF model: 4-10 knots

"So, if these models are accurate, then we are marginal at best for racing," says Orams. "This north-west wind direction seems unstable and difficult to get going in Bermuda.

"The more reliable wind direction is from the west, south-west quarter."

Today's schedule (postponed)
Softbank Team Japan v Groupama Team France
Land Rover BAR (GBR) v Emirates Team NZ
Oracle Team USA v Softbank Team Japan
Groupama Team France v Land Rover BAR (GBR)

Standings
Oracle Team USA 6pts
Emirates Team NZ 5pts
Land Rover BAR (GBR) 4pts
Artemis Racing (Sweden) 2pts
Softbank Team Japan 2pts
Groupama Team France 2pts