By JULIE ASH
Sweden's Victory Challenge were eagerly waiting to pit their new yacht SWE73 against Team Dennis Conner in last Friday's round of the Louis Vuitton challenger series.
They are still waiting.
Strong winds meant the series has lost four successive days, and the Swedes are frustrated as they look to
check the quality of their second yacht.
Victory Challenge were the only team who opted to change yachts for the second round, and use their second boat, SWE73 (Orm).
In its first outing, SWE73 beat the bottom-of-the-table French challenge Le Defi Areva by 1m 19s in shifty conditions on Thursday, but Victory Challenge project manager Mats Johansson said the team were waiting for their match against the Americans before fully assessing the boat's performance.
"We were happy with what we could see," he said of their race against the French.
"We could have a bit more speed upwind, but we have a programme for that.
"We look forward to meeting Stars and Stripes and seeing how far we are. This is a good indication of how good Orm is."
The Swedes beat Team Dennis Conner by 33s in the first round, but Johansson said that race was now in the past.
"This is not an easy match at all and we can expect a tough battle against them.
"Team Dennis Conner have so much experience and they will get faster and faster in each match," he said.
While the delay is frustrating, Johansson said it at least gave teams a chance to do some fine-tuning.
"There is always something to do," he said. "We have a lot of small things to do. We introduced SWE73 a littler earlier than we had planned so now we want to try and develop it before the quarter-finals.
"You have to remember we are an inexperienced crew. This is a big learning curve for us and we have a lot to learn."
In terms of the crew, and in particular the role of helmsman, which has been alternated between Jesper Bank and Magnus Holmberg, Johansson said the job was Bank's, provided he performed.
"I would like to see how Jesper Bank can do in the early races in round two. If he does well I am quite happy to let him continue."
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