ACWS Plymouth: Day 1

Opening Day in Plymouth
 Saturday, September 10

Showing the colors: Fleet racing was the order of the day in Plymouth for the start of the America's Cup World Series regatta.
Photo:©2011 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

Race Results:

Fleet Race 1:
ETNZ wins, Oracle4 2nd, Artemis 3rd, Aleph 4th, Oracle5 5th, Korea 6th, China 7th, GreenComm 8th, Energy 9th.

Fleet Race 2:
Oracle4 wins, Artemis 2nd, ETNZ 3rd, Oracle5 4th, China 5th, Energy 6th, Aleph 7th, GreenComm 8th, Korea DNF.

Fleet Race 3:
ETNZ wins another! Artemis 2nd, Oracle5 3rd, Oracle4 4th, Aleph 5th, China 6th, Energy 7th, Korea 8th, GreenComm 9th.

See ACWS Plymouth Results and Standings

Russell Coutts gets his cat into a nose-down attitude.  OR5 had OCS problems in Race 1.  Photo:©2011 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

Preview:
(Sept 10) The America's Cup World Series lands Saturday in Plymouth, England, running through next weekend.  Cup watchers, the sailors, and organizers alike will be curious to see how the second regatta for AC45 yachts plays out.  The course, racing rules, and technologies have all been tweaked as the 2013 America's Cup adventure moves up the learning curve.

Importantly, more crews have had a chance to get to know the new winged catamarans, and the conditions in Plymouth look to be a lot more challenging than in Portugal.  Aside from higher winds expected, competing inside Plymouth harbor, with the effects of hills on three sides on top of the tidal variations of an English channel port will make for a complicated tactical challenge onboard.

Saturday Outlook:
Three Fleet Races are scheduled for Saturday's opening day, with the first start expected at 2:00PM local time/9:00AM ET.  Onshore forecast calls for breeze SW 18-22 knots, with gusts into the 30s.  Winds on the water may be flirting with the upper end of the safe range, with gales possible into Saturday night and through Sunday as remnants of Hurricane Katia come to bear on the region.  See Windfinder plus weather notes from Chris Bedford, Oracle Racing meteorologist for more.  The UK Met Service was predicting gusts to 40 knots (47 mph) for Sunday night and has issued a wind advisory for Monday, which may signal a need to seek shelter for the wings.  Also, check out the live webcam of the AC45 mooring area.

Stuart Alexander notes that if the more threatening forecasts do indeed verify, the priorities of preserving self, crew, and an expensive race yacht could scratch Saturday or Sunday's action.  Story at The Independent: "Dangerous Conditions Set to Greet America's Cup Hopefuls"