KEY POINTS:
Light conditions off Valencia today postponed the start of sailing in the America's Cup challengers' series for the third day in a row.
Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup, which was to have begun on Tuesday (NZT), is now not scheduled to get going until tomorrow.
Weather permitting,
Team New Zealand's opening matches of their campaign will be against Team Germany and China Team.
Officials and the 11 challenging syndicates went back out to the two courses today only to find similar conditions to the previous two days.
The sun was out and the skies were clear, but the temperatures were not high enough to heat up the land and produce the sea breeze needed. As a result, the wind didn't get over six knots.
American syndicate Oracle's meteorologist, Chris Bedford, said the forecast for tomorrow was again for light airs.
He said they could be strong enough to allow for one race, but doubted that two could be completed.
Sailing conditions were expected to improve gradually from the following day.
Bedford said the weather this week was unusual, but not atypical for April in Valencia, based on Oracle's on-water data going back to 2004.
Team NZ meteorologist Tom Addis said race officials had to wait for the right conditions, even if the situation could be frustrating for sailors.
"It's important for the race committees to run a high quality race," he said.
"If they bang a race off in very fluky, unstable conditions, then you'd almost be better off staying on land and tossing coins to decide the winner."
One of today's two races has been switched to the second reserve day on Tuesday and the other to the first day of the second round-robin next Thursday.
Race officials said the original schedule of just one race a day during the second round-robin was to allow for postponements.
Under the LV Cup format, there are two round-robins, after which the top four challengers will go through to the knockout stage.
The winning syndicate will face Swiss defenders Alinghi in the America's Cup showdown beginning in late June.
Valencia was chosen ahead of other European cities to host this year's battle for the Auld Mug because of its consistent weather.
But none of the build-up regattas in Spain over the past three years started before May, except for the final one this year.
Louis Vuitton Act 13 was held last month and was disrupted by delays and the abandonment of racing on one day.
- NZPA