Answers blowing in the wind

By Terry Maddaford

Challengers be warned - be prepared for a painful and expensive start to your quest to win the America's Cup as you take on the winds of the Hauraki Gulf.

Auckland in October is notoriously breezy – to put it mildly.

Sir Peter Blake has predicted that spinnakers will explode and masts snap as the shiny new America's Cup class yachts venture out on to the Hauraki Gulf in what is typically the windiest month of the year.

The challengers are all too aware of the vagaries of Auckland's weather – this is after all the city of four seasons in one day. And they know the mammoth role it will play in who wins the Louis Vuitton Cup.

They realise that the conditions they encounter in round robin one will no doubt be vastly different from those for the America's Cup in February. But they have not come to Auckland unprepared.

Millions of dollars have been spent by the foreign syndicates and their special weather teams to unlock the secrets of the winds and seas of the gulf, and design boats to master them.

One–boat syndicates have had to make the difficult decision as to which end of the wind scale to build their boat – light airs or heavy?

That is where a two–boat campaign has a big advantage. They could design one boat to win in a boisterous spring, and another for a breathy summer.

There were no such conundrums to solve in San Diego, or Fremantle before that.

Thirteen years ago, in Fremantle, the "doctor" controlled racing – a major sea breeze which rolled in every day after lunch.

In San Diego, there was always a weak sea breeze which rarely lifted above 12 knots.

With no land in sight from the race course, the cup fleet had to contend with a huge sea swell.

In Auckland, tide and currents come in to play, and choppy seas when the wind opposes the tide. Spectator craft can also stir up a "washing machine", but they will be kept well away from the duelling boats.

Weather programmes began at least three years ago when the challengers quietly set to work on the gulf course.

Since 1996 a weather buoy has been bobbing out in the gulf where the challengers will do battle. It was set up by the America's Cup Challenger Association so all of the syndicates could get information from the buoy.

They have even shared the data with the cup defender, Team New Zealand, who looked after the buoy in the early days.

The changing weather patterns are recorded every 10 minutes, and can be picked up off the Internet. AmericaOne have taken a different – and controversial – tack, buying the rights to information from the NIWA buoy.

The long range weather forecasts say to expect westerlies – which could translate to shifty winds – for the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup, with a switch to easterlies in November.

Every syndicate has brought its own weather team, many with a professional meteorologist.

A couple of hours before the race start each day, the weather team head out to the course in little boats with masts equipped with wind instruments.

They log the trends of the wind, measured every five minutes, and relay the patterns to the tactician on board the race yacht just before the 10–minute start–gun so he or she can choose which end of the startline to head for.

But in the early stages of the regatta, they may not get that far.

Winds too light or too strong mean no racing – even if sailing has started for the day.

Racing can be postponed if the wind is lighter than five knots – measured 10 metres above sea level for 15 minutes.

Or at the other extreme, it will be held up if it is blowing greater than 18 knots for five minutes.

It can also be abandoned if the winds become too shifty or go above 23 knots.

There are, however, no minimums or maximums for the challenger's final, or the America's Cup match.

"We are aware that Team New Zealand have not set limits [for the match]," says ACCA spokeswoman Heather Pike.

"So we have taken them out of our list of conditions for the final.

"We are also aware the challenger will have had a lot more hours on the water than the defender and have to bear in mind the fatigue and stress the challenging boat will have been subjected to in what could be some pretty testing conditions."


* Terry Maddaford has covered eight Olympic and Commonwealth Games. He will be part of our on and off–shore Cup reporting team.