America's Cup: What to expect in semi-final race against Ben Ainslie Racing

Here is the briefing for the first day of racing for the semi-final playoffs.

The PredictWind forecast for the America's Cup course area for 4 June (Monday 5 June NZ time) is for light winds which look within the range for racing. The rules for this regatta require an average wind strength at the start line area of six knots. However, the forecast wind direction which is north to north-east, is the direction that was unable to get established on Day 3 of the qualifying series which resulted in the abandonment of sailing on that day, so hopefully history will not repeat.

Fortunately the Monday in Bermuda (Tuesday in NZ) is scheduled as a lay-day so it does provide racer director Ian Murray a back-up option to keep the regatta on schedule.

The PredictWind models are as follows for start time of the first race of the semi-final playoffs on the Great Sound:

PWG: 7-9 knots
PWE: 8-10 knots
GFS: 5-6 knots
ECMWF: 3-10 knots

These lighter wind-strengths result in the teams usually picking their larger, high lift foils and in this mode Emirates Team New Zealand was very strong during the qualifiers.

The race schedule is as follows:

Race 12: NZL vs GBR
Race 13: JPN vs SWE
Race 14: GBR vs NZL
Race 15: SWE vs JPN