Short Weather Delay - Then Boats Leave For The Course

Report courtesy of www.louisvuittoncup.com

Round Robin 1 - Race 7 - AmericaOne vs Prada
This morning Louis Vuitton Cup Race Director Vince Cooke postponed all scheduled races for an hour. But at 08:30 am, the call was made to start at 11:30 am. Suddenly there was lots of activity.

The 80-foot boats were quickly launched, crew were hanging on to the mooring lines as the sleek boats hit the water. The chase boats were loaded with spare sails. As the boats left the Viaduct Basin, the average wind speed on the course was 16 to 18 knots.

There was no major activity at the French base.

Le Defi was still standing in the cradle without a mast. Late last night the French called the Italians to notify them that they were not competing today.

The Prada Challenge still has to sail around the course to get the win. Most likely they will use some older sails and give some of the backup crew a opportunity to sail.

The Swiss are still working on the repairs to be hAPpy and will not be ready in time for today's races. They are supposed to race against the Spanish team, which will have to sail the course alone to obtain a point.

With AmericaOne granted another day for repairs, her races against Young Australia and Young America are postponed to Thursday.

As a result there are only two real races in the morning: Nippon versus America True, and Stars and Stripes versus Young America.

In the afternoon the only real races are Prada versus Abracadabra 2000, Bravo Espana against America True and Stars and Stripes against Young Australia.

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