More America's Cup delays

Add another day to the most drawn out America's Cup in history.

Race one off the best-of-three Deed of Gift Match, rescheduled from Monday, was abandoned for a second time in Valencia just after midday Wednesday local time (midnight Thursday NZT).

On Monday it was unstable wind direction at either end of the of the 20 nautical mile first beat; today it was high winds and a choppy nor-east swell that has stumped Swiss defender Alinghi 5 and US-challenger BMW Oracle Racing.

The much-anticipated showdown between the monster multis is now rescheduled for Friday at 10pm NZT. Under Deed of Gift rules for the 33rd America's Cup, racing cannot be held in the days between the official race days, so the contest will now spill over to the official reserve days from February 14-25.

However, the near perfect conditions needed for racing has spectators and media scratching their heads over when the warring syndicates will ever get on the water after their nearly three-year-long court battle, particularly with more unsettled weather forecast on Friday.

Principal race officer Harold Bennett issued a further one hour delay at 8.30am this morning, pushing the start back to 1pm Wednesday (1am Thursday NZT) at the earliest, three hours after the scheduled 10am warning signal.

A swell rather than too much wind appears to be the issue for the Swiss holders' giant catamaran Alinghi 5 and the ever bigger trimaran of the US-challenger BWM Oracle Racing who both remain tied up at their Port America's Cup bases.

After strong westerly winds overnight the breeze is forecast to ease before a gentle easterly settles in this afternoon (local time).

However, Alinghi's New Zealand-strategist Murray Jones said in a media statement that waves peaking at 1.8m could halt proceedings.

"Right now there's quite a lot of breeze; the weather boats have around 20 knots which would be around 25 knots at the top of our mast," said Jones. "The waves are the biggest problem. I think they're about 1.3m average size in the start area. So that means we could have a peak of 1.8m. I think that's the biggest issue.

"The bad news is because of a lot of wind up north towards France the waves are unlikely to drop off during the day. Even though the wind may drop off, the waves won't so that could be the determining factor for the day."

Bennett, from Auckland, had reportedly headed out to sea to check conditions as sailors, spectators and media waited with baited breath for news of racing after a nearly three year fight in the Supreme Court of New York State to get the America's Cup back on the water.

Oracle, meanwhile, named an unchanged crew lineup of  Brad Webb (NZL), Simone de Mari (ITA), Ross Halcrow (NZL), Dirk de Ridder (NED), Joey Newton (AUS), John Kostecki (USA), James Spithill (AUS), Matteo Plazzi (ITA), Thierry Fouchier (FRA) and Matthew Mason (NZL). It meant no lace for the Auld Mug's most decorated skipper, Russell Coutts, or Oracle president Larry Ellison.

There was no word on Alignhi's crew make-up.

Kent Gray, on assignment for Fairfax Media in Spain, is the editor of Boating New Zealand magazine.

- © Fairfax NZ News