The extremes of winter weather in Valencia...from flat seas to gail force winds, all add to a difficult decision as to the safety of running an AC race on any given day. Monday's scheduled first race was postponed after three or so hours of waiting for a steady and consistant wind on the race course some 20 miles off the coast of Valencia. So tomorrow, Wednesday, will be the next scheduled race and today in Valencia the winds are blowing up to 30 knots with six foot plus seas...conditions that could prove extremely exciting or tragically dangerous.
The eyes of the sailing world are focused on Valencia as the websites connected to the event are getting thousands of hit, live video streams have people glued to their computers, and over 600 of the worlds press are in Valencia covering the event. Here's a detailed explanation of what's going on right now in Valencia regarding the decisions that must be made for Wednesday's race.
Here's the latest from www.33rd.americascup.com: Race 1, a big Wednesday?
The rescheduled first clash of the 33rd America’s Cup between the giant multihulls of Alinghi and BMW ORACLE Racing which is now due for Wednesday off Valencia looks set to encounter brisk winds and challenging seas. The stage may be set for a full speed, high action duel.
With winds of over 25 knots offshore today neither the Challenger BMW ORACLE Racing nor the Defender Alinghi chose to practice today, electing not to risk crew and their cutting edge craft on the eve of the first of the best-of-three race series.
As prescribed by the 1887 Deed of Gift which principally governs this regatta, the course remains the same, of 40 miles total distance comprising one upwind leg and one downwind leg. The deed also rules that there should be one day off in between racing days, hence the reason racing was not scheduled for today Tuesday.
Reports suggested that the two teams were configuring their craft for the stronger northerly airs which are being drawn down to Valencia by a low pressure system towards the east.
260.000 unique visitors to americascup.com. The leap in technology and fascination with this historic match, as well as the accessibility of real time images and information has almost certainly seen a spike in interest for this 33rd edition. Over 260,000 people logged on around the world to watch Monday’s live coverage of Race Day 1, Monday on www.americascup .com with over 450,000 page views.
You can follow the action on the various websites listed above, and in the USA, www.espn360.com will broadcast live on the internet. For more on the AC, travel, and unique travel insights, check out my Internatioanl Travel Insights home page at this link.
Here's the latest slideshow from Valencia: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alinghiteam/show/
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