America's Cup racing delayed

A forecast promising a big swell off Valencia has seen officials delay the start time of tonight's (NZ time) rescheduled first race of the 33rd America's Cup by at least two hours.

The decision, made late on Tuesday night local time (this morning, NZ time) in Spain, means there will not be a warning signal for race one of best-of-three Deed of Gift match before 11.54 tonight (NZ time).

Strong winds are forecast overnight and a further assessment will be made at 8.30am local time (8.30pm NZ time).

Principal race officer Harold Bennett talked to the weather teams of both Swiss defender Alinghi and US-challenger BMW Oracle before making the decision.

"There are a lot of strong winds forecast overnight and offshore and that is going to throw up a swell. So it is more the sea-state that is going to be of concern. Until we see what the sea state is we are not going to guess," the Aucklander said.

"I don't want to put the boats out there if they are not going to sail. I do not want to put them all the way out there and bring them back without a race.
 
"Talking with the weather guys from both teams they agree that this is what we are going to get, so it is a fairly easy decision to make."

Race one was originally scheduled for Monday night (NZ time) but the 40 nautical mile opener (20 miles to windward and a 20 mile run back to the start/finish line) was abandoned due to unstable winds at either end of windward beat.

Under race rules, Bennett can call off a started race if there is more than a 30 degree wind shift on the upwind leg. There was up to a 100 degree shift on Monday with the wind consistently differing by 40 degrees at the committee boat (start) and the top mark turning buoy.

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

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