By JULIE ASH
After a bye on the first day and with racing postponed for the second consecutive day yesterday, Sweden's Victory Challenge are hoping it will be a case of fourth time lucky today.
The other eight challengers have had one race but the true strength of the Swedes, who
are patiently waiting for their first match on the Hauraki Gulf, remains a mystery.
Victory Challenge afterguard member Magnus Holmberg said his team were more than ready to race but were aware how fickle the Auckland weather could be.
"It is not the first time we have been stranded on the shore and it won't be the last," he said.
Like many of the other teams along syndicate row Victory Challenge had yesterday off.
"We are pretty happy with everything so the guys are having the day off relaxing a bit. Some have gone home to their families and some are out playing golf.
"Now we are losing sailing days we know it is going to get busy later on."
Victory Challenge are scheduled to face French Challengers Le Defi Areva today and Holmberg said after sitting-out the first race his team were able to gain some knowledge on the other challengers.
"I think we were a bit surprised by the big differences between Alinghi and Le Defi and OneWorld and Mascalzone Latino.
"I don't think we expected the margins to be quite so big," he said.
Holmberg, last year's Swedish Match Tour Champion, said the final crew for today's match against the French had not been confirmed but if the winds were light he was likely to be included as strategist with Jesper Bank as helmsman.
"If there is a lot of wind, Harald [Blom-Bakke] is likely to be on the boat as strategist as he is more technically skilled with the runners."
Principal race officer Peter Reggio made the call at 7.30am to postpone the day's racing.
"It wasn't a hard decision," said Reggio.
"As much as we hate to do this, we didn't want to wreck the fleet. The consensus was that the breeze would build as the day went on."
The rules say the wind average must be between 7 and 19 knots for races to begin.
In the America's Cup match there are no such boundaries. The race committee negotiates the lower limit with the defender and the challenger and the upper limit is set at their discretion.
"We might've had a window between 10am and 11.30am but then the wind would start to build and build to 25 to 30 knots," Reggio said.
"It didn't seem appropriate to drag the fleet and everyone else out there only to postpone at the scheduled start time."
There are five reserve days in the first round. The first is on Sunday, which will now become a race day, and a further four occur next Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. A seven-day break is scheduled between rounds but that can be used for racing, if needed.
Oracle BMW Racing tactician John Cutler said one thing that you learned from sailing in Auckland was to prepare for anything and to be adaptable.
"The highly changeable conditions lean itself towards a test not just in sailing ability, but patience and planning," Cutler said.
Better conditions are expected today with Team Dennis Conner to face Prada and OneWorld to meet Alinghi on Course Romeo.
On Course Juliet, Oracle BMW Racing will meet Mascalzone Latino and Victory Challenge Le Defi Areva.
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
Racing schedule, results and standings
By JULIE ASH
After a bye on the first day and with racing postponed for the second consecutive day yesterday, Sweden's Victory Challenge are hoping it will be a case of fourth time lucky today.
The other eight challengers have had one race but the true strength of the Swedes, who
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