Sailing: Two races a day to beat weather
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Your support makes all the difference.The timetable logjam caused by losing more and more racing days to bad weather – today's race is very marginal – has at last led to some re-thinking and increased flexibility for the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Before supper yesterday, the principal race officer, Peter Reggio of Essex, Connecticut, had already decided that prospects for today looked so doubtful that he would go ahead and cancel racing.
He also accepted there was resistance to bringing forward the time for racing a full 18.5-mile course each day to 10.40am. But he won approval to call, at his discretion, two races a day over a 12.5-mile course, the first starting at 10.40am. The international jury meets this morning to ratify that, and Reggio has already indicated that he would like to implement the provision for tomorrow's races.
So far, the first seven days of the second round robin have seen only two race days. As one of those was a day off for the British GBR Challenge, they have completed only one race in a week. The round is due to end by next Monday and there are already signs of further weather disruption on the way.
GBR's next opponents are the joint leaders, OneWorld of Seattle and, if the two-race plan proves workable, they would then meet Le Defi Areva of France, who have yet to score a win, in the second race of the day.
About to tackle the calms of the Doldrums, Bernard Stamm in Armor Lux has seen his lead on the second leg of the Around Alone race from Torbay to Cape Town cut as Thierry Dubois in Solidaires and Britain's Emma Richards in Pindar reel him in with Graham Dalton in Hexagon 100 miles behind Richards.
The six yachts in Class 2 are already caught in very light airs, cause by a ridge of high pressure that extends hundreds of miles out from the African coast.
Said John Dennis on Bayer Ascensia: "I am wondering if I will get to Cape Town by Christmas."
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