Ineos Team UK and Luna Rossa in action. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Ineos Team UK and Luna Rossa in action. Photo / Brett Phibbs
All you need to know ahead of day three of the Prada Cup.
Course A will be used today with a north/NW wind expected.
Course A allows the race management group more leeway to move the course should the wind change like it's supposed to. But because of that, the initial spectators' boundary has been set some distance from the course.
Race Director Iain Murray said that would probably be brought in though once conditions became clearer.
Ineos Team UK remained unbeaten in the Prada Cup yesterday, beating American Magic in their only race on day two.
But for the Americans, led by Kiwi Dean Barker, it was a second horror day on the water as they suffered a third defeat and tumbled from pre-regatta favourites to now being regarded as the weakest challenger on display.
The frustration seemingly got to Barker who, after the first race of the day - defeat to Jimmy Spithill's Luna Rossa in very light breeze - expressed his displeasure with the decision to go ahead with sailing despite the low winds.
"[You could] call that a lottery yeah … pretty marginal. You question why you want to do that as part of the event. But it is what it is. Swings and roundabouts and it obviously didn't go that well for us," Barker said in what was seemingly a veiled dig at officials.
When asked why American Magic didn't go with bigger headsails, Barker said: "Leading up to the start we didn't expect to be sailing in that light a breeze. It was a bit of a surprise that it got so light.
"It is just connecting the dots. Everyone is struggling."
In what had previously been an area of concern for Ineos Team UK, the British entry showed plenty of improvement in the light winds to claim their third straight win.
As they did on opening day, Sir Ben Ainslie's crew got the better of the start which put them in position to control the course.
The British team managed the patchy conditions better, and led by more than 1600m after the third leg.
In the end, it became a race against the clock for Ineos Team UK, who had just under seven minutes to finish the final leg and beat the 45-minute time limit on the race.
They did so with about two minutes remaining, at which team skipper Sir Ben Ainslie said "good sailing".
The Americans also suffered a nightmare start to the first race - after unsuccessfully appealing for a penalty on the Italian following a close cross in the pre-start, both teams dropped off their foils and were already having to work hard to get flying again.
The Italians did so before long, while the Americans remained beached for much of the remaining two minutes before the start.
As Luna Rossa flew down the first leg, American Magic again fell off the foils midway through the leg, and were racing in displacement until just before the marker, which they rounded more than seven minutes after Luna Rossa.
But while American Magic had their struggles in the opening leg, Luna Rossa had their own in the second. The Americans quickly ate through the lead as Luna Rossa couldn't get foiling and halfway down the leg found themselves in the lead.
Both teams' struggles to stay up saw the race shorted from six legs to four early in the second leg.
Soon after, Luna Rossa flew back into the lead as they were able to get up on their foils before their counterparts to lead by one minute at the second marker.
From there, they never relinquished the lead – managing to chase the breeze all the way down the last leg to stay on their foils the whole way down and close out a strange race.
SCHEDULES
There will be two races per day with the race window between 3pm and 5pm, with the exception of the final where the race window will be between 4pm and 6pm.
Luna Rossa will race twice on day three against Ineos Team UK and American Magic, with the first race between Luna Rossa and Ineos tenatively scheduled for 3.15.
Prada Cup schedule. Photo / America's Cup
WEATHER
The winds will be back for the third day of racing in the Prada Cup, but foul weather is forecast for spectators along the Auckland waterfront.
"It should be pretty good for sailing," said MetService forecaster Aidan Pyselman.
He said the winds in the morning will be light, but a northwesterly will develop later in the morning and reach 15 knots by lunchtime and be pretty good for racing in the afternoon.
The northwest winds of 10 to 25 knots will be similar in strength to yesterday's southwest winds that saw Team UK fly out of the blocks and bag back-to-back wins against American Magic and Luna Rossa.
Weatherwise, it won't be good in the City of Sails with cloud in the morning and a front crossing the city late in the afternoon with showers and potential thunderstorms through into the evening.
ODDS
Race one:
Ineos Team UK - $1.50 Luna Rossa - $2.40
TAB odds after day two – Prada Cup winner:
Ineos Team UK – $1.75 Luna Rossa - $3 American Magic – $5
The Herald will have live updates on nzherald.co.nz/sport while you can listen to live commentary on Gold AM and iHeartRadio.
America's Cup coverage is free-to-air on TVNZ. You can also stream the action live or on-demand on TVNZ.co.nz or on the America's Cup YouTube channel.
If you're in Auckland, you can also head down to the America's Cup Race Village at the Viaduct Marina, where there will be a stage and big screens to watch the action. The village operates from 10am to 8pm on race days and can be accessed through the main entrance at the beginning of Hobson Wharf.
