ValenciaSailing reports break on US America's Cup Challenger

7:27 PM Thu 28 Jan 2010 GMT

'USA slows down and it seems that the crew is checking something on the wing. Valencia, 28 January 2010.' Valenciasailing.com Click Here to view large photo

Spanish sailing website www.valenciasailing.com was on the water today in Valencia for the Race Committee practice day to which the America's Cup Challenger and Defender were invited to attend, and report that the US Challenger suffered a significant breakage in the vicinity of the Race Committee boat:

BMW Oracle Racing later said the breakage was minor and would be repaired without lowering the wingsail

Meanwhile in Valencia... beautiful day but USA suffers breakage approaching the Committee boat

Sorry for the delay in publishing any updates but it was again due to spending a long day on the water off Valencia. What a difference a day makes. While yesterday I was complaining about the cold, windy and rainy weather we had in the world's sailing capital, Thursday was a completely different day. Fortunately, the weather front that whipped Valencia for 4 days finally moved further north and gave way to blue sunny skies, flat seas and light breezes, too light at times.

I had the chance to be on the committee boat with Harold Bennett, Principal Race Officer, who together with the rest of the Race Operations team ran a number of tests in order to simulate a Deed-of-Gift race. One thing is for sure, it will not be very easy to set up a fair race course rapidly.

The dockout was at noon but the breeze was absent, topping 2 knots at best. The remains of the wind from the inland were fighting with the developing thermal breeze and as a result the safest option was to go further offshore, in order to set the starting line at 24 miles from the coast. Yet halfway through, approximately 10 miles from the coast, the shift was becoming more evident and there was a faint 3-knot thermal breeze. As a result, we moved back, getting closer to the shore. In fact, we got much closer than I would have imagined, just 2.5 miles from the Malvarosa beach.

This is due to the fact that the actual layline angles of the two giant multihulls are smaller than initially anticipated, making it possible to set up the starting line at least a couple of miles closer, if of course there is a constant thermal breeze from the east. At that distance, sea depth is about 35 meters, so the race committee and pin end boats can even anchor. A number of the race operations boats are already connected to the AIS and it seems to be working perfectly, so if you are curious to see what they are doing every day you can log on to www.marinetraffic.com zoom in on Valencia and track some of them.

For the rest of this story click here

by Valencia Sailing

Newsfeed supplied by

#News #Cruising #Sailing #North

Cruising

The Bar Crossing: Wait for Slack Water

Cross on slack or the first of the flood.

Cruising

Night Watch: Stay Useful After Dark

Watch stints, handovers and sleep that holds up

Nearby
Thangool Airport, QLD	Calm	17°
Windiest in Australia
Mount Wellington, TAS	30 kn SW	7°
Most Windless in Australia
Witchcliffe, WA	Calm	11°
Hottest in Australia
Fitzroy Crossing, WA	5 kn SW	32°
Coldest in Australia
Perisher Valley, NSW	Calm	1°
Wettest in Australia
Pukatja, SA	41.0 mm

ValenciaSailing reports break on US America's Cup Challenger

The Bar Crossing: Wait for Slack Water

Night Watch: Stay Useful After Dark

Live Weather

Nearby

Windiest in Australia

Most Windless in Australia

Hottest in Australia

Coldest in Australia

Wettest in Australia

(Other) Articles

Buy & Sell

2021 F-One 12M Bandit

2024 Neil Pryde Fly 2

2020 Blue Planet Surf Easy Foiler

2025 Neo Dlab 9M

2025 North Hm105 Mast

2019 Fanatic Grip

2026 Kt Surfing Blade

Know before you go

Download the Seabreeze app for iOS or Android.

Weather

Activities

About

Other

Support