America’s Cup: Light winds threaten racing with Team NZ one win away from successful defence

By Christopher Reive in Barcelona

If you’re planning on getting up in the early hours of Sunday morning with hopes of seeing Team New Zealand close out the America’s Cup, brew your coffee strong.

After a day of great racing conditions saw the Kiwi crew bag another two races and move to match point in their best-of-13 series against Ineos Britannia, Sunday morning’s forecast is not quite so reliable.

In his daily media briefing in Barcelona tonight, regatta director Iain Murray indicated there could be a long wait for racing – with the key moment of the day in terms of the building breeze likely being 90 minutes after the scheduled 1.10am start time. However, the most recent update is race management will try to get sailing under way at 1.50am.

“It’s showing a glimpse of life, and that’s a building southerly sea breeze. There’s not much driving it today; it’s cold outside, there’s no gradient breeze, so it’s a sea breeze trying to develop really all on its own in isolation,” Murray said.

“Probably a critical time for us is around 3.30pm (2.30am NZ) as to whether we have gotten away at that time. I’m sure we’re going to have wind, but can we satisfy the wind limit?

“It’s going to be one of those days where we go out there fingers crossed and hope we get away on time. I think we’re looking for the sun to come out and warm up, and hopefully this sea breeze will get some strength and build on itself by itself.”

Sunday morning’s forecast does look more promising than Monday’s, where the wind is expected to die away completely before it builds again for Tuesday morning – the last day of the Cup window before a week of reserve days come into play.

It’s the latest storyline to come from the Barcelona weather – and is similar to the final day of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series, where a delay was expected early in the day but instead racing got underway as scheduled as Ineos Britannia eliminated Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.

“We’ll be ready for anything,” Team NZ starboard flight controller Andy Maloney said.

“The weekend looks really light and we’ll be hoping to get some racing in.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.