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Racing postponed again, the Louis Vuitton Cup gets off to a slow start

The weather hasn’t been kind to the sailors to this point at the Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia. For the second consecutive day, the sunny skies weren’t able to generate a strong enough sea breeze to enable racing. Both scheduled flights of racing were postponed until a later date.

If you’re not trying to race America’s Cup boats, the weather in Valencia this week has been beautiful with clear, sunny skies and temperatures just above 20 degrees. On Monday, a bank holiday in the city, over 51 000 spectators took advantage of the sunny, warm conditions to enjoy the atmosphere and take part in the activities in Port America’s Cup.

But there hasn’t been enough power in the spring sun to heat up the land to the point where it sucks in the air from over the race course area, generating the renowned Valencia sea breeze which offers consistent racing conditions.

On Tuesday, all of the race crews and their boats assembled on the two race course areas in preparation for the scheduled 14:15 race start. But at the appointed time, the Race Committee postponed the start on both courses. As on Monday, the teams, regatta organisers, and spectator boats held station until late afternoon in an effort to get racing underway. But the wind never registered above five knots and a start was impossible.

The first scheduled reserve day on Friday is now in play with Flights 1 and 2 scheduled. Flights 3 and 4 will take the next available racing slot which means Flight 3 would be the second flight of racing on Sunday, and Flight 4 on the second reserve day, next Monday.