Alinghi had everything lined up to win the America's Cup on Sunday but the crunch race was postponed because the vital ingredient was missing - wind. The Swiss syndicate lead Team New Zealand 4-2 in the best-of-nine series and will now have to wait until Tuesday to play their match point.
The two crews sailed out into the Mediterranean as scheduled on Sunday but already their weather teams were looking dubiously at the sky as a cool front started to move in from the north, chilling the land and stopping the sea breeze from building.
At sea, the teams waited, joking around, checking equipment and sunbathing on deck About 75 minutes after the race was supposed to have started, the race committee called the whole thing off.
"We were happy with the decision. We didn't want to race again in light, shifty conditions," said Grant Simmer, Alinghi's managing director. "We've been waiting for the match for three or four years so it's not a big deal to wait a couple of days."
Alinghi complained when they had to race on Tuesday in strong but shifting winds. They lost that match. It is one of the vagaries of sailing that regattas cannot be planned perfectly because they are dependent on Mother Nature.
At the last America's Cup in Auckland in 2003, the teams waited for eight days in a row for the wind to settle and ensure a fair playing field for sailing's most important competition.
Alinghi won that series 5-0 against Team New Zealand, becoming the first European syndicate to win the America's Cup in its 156-year history. As defender, one of the reasons Alinghi chose Valencia to host the 32nd America's Cup was because there is usually a steady sea breeze at this time of year as the hot Spanish plain sucks air in off the Mediterranean.
However, this year has been different. At the beginning of the challenger playoffs in April, racing started four days late as the teams waited for a breeze to build. Several other days were lost along the way as the wind blew too softly or too strongly. Under this year's America's Cup rules, racing cannot start unless the wind is steady between seven and 23 knots.
Team New Zealand strategist Ray Davies said he reckoned the wind would build back up in the next couple of days to about 10-15 knots. Monday is a scheduled layday with no racing. Simmer and Davies said they doubted their teams would go out sailing, instead doing some light weight training and studying race videos to sharpen up for Tuesday's race.
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