By JULIE ASH
It is not looking good - that is the verdict from weather forecasters for the Hauraki Gulf for the rest of the week.
Race four of the America's Cup was postponed for the fourth time yesterday.
Principal race officer Harold Bennett held discussions with both Alinghi and Team New Zealand
and their weather teams at 8am.
With next-to-no breeze, both teams agreed there was little chance of it building and racing was called off even before the teams left their docks.
Racing is scheduled to resume today at 1.15pm but the conditions are expected to be the opposite of those that have plagued the Gulf over the last week.
A low is expected to hit the North Island today, bringing gales and choppy seas, which are likely to postpone racing for a fifth time.
Team New Zealand meteorologist Roger Badham has predicted east to northeast winds ranging between 25 and 35 knots.
"There's a low in the Bay of Islands which is intensifying," he said.
"The seas will be pretty lumpy so unless it's slow to develop, we won't race."
Race organisers have predicted a similar outlook for today, with winds ranging between 23 and 28 knots and gusts of up to 40 knots.
They are also expecting similar bad weather for tomorrow and Thursday.
In the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series, racing was postponed on 22 days out of 67 due to unsuitable conditions.
Georgina Griffiths, from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said the news would not get better until later in the week.
"It should improve after Friday," she said.
"But up until then I would expect it to remain quite unsettled."
Continuous coverage of today's America's Cup race will begin on nzherald.co.nz at 12.30pm.
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
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