Other Sport
America's Cup race postponed
2010-02-08 14:13
Email | Print
Valencia - Lack of wind postponed the start Monday of the first race of the 33rd America's Cup pitting defending Swiss champions Alinghi against US side Oracle in a best-of-three series.
The kick-off for the race - a 40-nautical-mile windward-leeward course off the coast of the Spanish port of Valencia - had been due at 11:00 SA time but race director Harold Bennett delayed it for a yet to be determined amount of time due to light and shifting winds.
Both boats departed at dawn for the starting area located 27 nautical miles off the coast where the wind was reported at less than two knots with maximum speeds of nearly eight knots. The possibility of rain was also forecast.
The rules for the 33rd America's Cup, sailing's oldest and most prestigious race, do not specify minimum or maximum wind speeds. During the last Cup held in Valencia the acceptable wind range was set at between seven and 23 knots.
This time around it is up to the race committee to determine whether to start or continue a race, taking into account safety and legal obligations.
If a race is cancelled or postponed, the rules require that it be sailed on the next scheduled race day, which is Wednesday.
The Cup has traditionally been run in monohulls but this year for the first time both sides will sail multihulls.
The 33rd America's Cup pits Alinghi's giant catamaran, the Alinghi 5, against Oracle's equally large trimaran, the USA, the biggest, fastest and most expensive entries in the 159-year-old event's history.
The Alinghi 5 features a mast that is as tall as a 17-storey building while the USA has a solid vertical wingspan of 68 metres, more than twice the length of the wing of a Boeing 747.
Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli, a 44-year-old Swiss biotech tycoon, is set to be one of the helmsman for his side during the first race while Australia's James Spithill, 30, was the designated helmsman of Oracle's boat, which is backed by US software tycoon Larry Ellison.
"We have been looking forward to this moment for a long time. It is good to be going racing at last," Bertarelli said just before his side set sail for the departure point.
Bertarelli and Ellison became embroiled in an increasingly bitter legal conflict after Alinghi won the last America's Cup in Valencia in July 2007 which led the 33rd edition of the event to be put off until this year.
The two sides have sparred over the rules, dates and location of the event.
Oracle accused the Swiss syndicate of trying to bend the rules in its favour for the 33rd edition. Alinghi has charged Oracle is seeking to win the Cup in the court rather than on the water.
The Supreme Court of the State of New York decided in April that the Cup should be settled by a one-on-one multihull duel in February instead of the traditional fully-fledged regatta involving several teams.