From the America's Cup Media Center in Valencia.

RACE ONE DAY TWO
sign off Race 1 until Friday
It was the lumpy, contrary swell left over from last night’s strong northerly winds which led to the postponement of Race 1 of the 33rd America’s Cup today, the second time that racing has been adversely affected by an unsettled weather or sea situation off Valencia.

The first match of the regatta is now scheduled for Friday 12th February with a start sequence pencilled for 1000hrs.
An initial postponement period, signalled last night (Tuesday), extended through this morning with the giant catamaran Alinghi 5 of the Swiss team Alinghi, the holders of the America’s Cup, and the trimaran USA, of the challenger, the American BMW ORACLE Racing Team, both remaining in their respective dock areas.

But at midday the signal flags were were raised over Port America’s Cup’s Varadero building to signal that racing is now held over until Friday.

The swell was estimated at an average of 1.3 metres by one of the competitors’ weather teams. Race officer Harold Bennett (NZL) described the sea state as ‘pretty rugged’.

Both teams, Alinghi and BMW ORACLE Racing, respected the decision taken although BMW ORACLE Racing’s skipper-helm James Spithill (AUS) later reported to a media conference that their crew were keen to go have gone racing in the morning conditions.

French solo round the world racer and multihull specialist Loick Peyron agreed with the decision not to race, saying that the huge multihulls are designed as the Formula 1 racers and should ‘not be rallying the Paris-Dakar’.

Bennett, who is officiating at his third America’s Cup, met the media during the afternoon and gave further information about the difficulty of the task that he and the Race Committee crew face. In previous America's Cup races he was responsible for setting a course of a 3 miles upwind-downwind legs. Here he has over 400 square miles of sea area to cover.

He cautioned, again, that patience will be required before acceptable conditions emerge to allow the first windward-leeward course of two 20 miles legs to be run.

Quotes:

Harold Bennett (NZL), Regatta Director and Principal Race Officer:
“ These are different boats from what we have been used to. And the understanding of them is still a learning curve. Conditions like today? That is interesting. I am not sure they would have done too well with it.”

“The last thing you want to do is see one of these boats break, that is going to hurt someone or even maybe not finish.”
“ There was a lot of seaway and so the prudent thing to do was not too go out too early. Having got to that, around 0830, I thought it was more prudent to go and have a look for ourselves. We went approximately 23.5 to 24 miles off the coast here and that would have given us a windward mark somewhere not too far off the port here. As we got 10 miles off the coast it was getting rather lumpy. We were surfing down some of the waves with the power cat. Once we turned around in the area, starting to have a look at it, there were some pretty big seas. We had the swell from the NE and the wind blowing off the west and that was throwing up some pretty big waves."

"I would have not had a problem with the wind conditions. We were looking at 17-18 knots, I wouldn’t have had a problem with that.”

“This is not the best time of year to be doing this. When it was announced that we were coming to here I said that everyone, the sailors, the public, the press everyone was going to have to be patient, because we had little information about the conditions outside of five or six miles and on Monday we found out about that breeze off the land which will go half way out but not right our. That was a point I made when I was asked. It will be a matter of being patient until we get it right.”

James Spithill (AUS), skipper-helm BMW ORACLE Racing:
“ We were keen to go. We think probably at 10 o’clock there was a window, but having that said that it is very easy to look from the outside. I think Harold Bennett is the right man for the job. I have full trust in Harold. He has a good track record and I would much rather be sailing that running racing.”

“We would be more than happy with conditions this morning, with those waves. We sailed in San Diego with two, two and a half metres. But obviously there are some variables with waves, the period, the direction etc but I think we would have been more than happy this morning. As I said it is not an easy job and I have full faith in Harold and I respect his decisions.”

Loïck Peyron (France), floater Alinghi 5:
“The best conditions are those in which you don’t risk the boat. We are both (teams) agreed on that. There are big waves coming all the way down from France. The conditions were possibly boat breaking. These boats are for Formula 1 racing and you do not take them off to do the Paris-Dakar.”

“ We did a few training races a week ago 20 miles to windward and back and it was perfect. But everyone knew before that this is not exactly the best place to do this.”

“ We did a very nice 20 mile course up and down and also a triangle but that was one time in a month, and it was in S’ly or SE’ly wind, maybe a lot before a low is coming. We had a little right shifts but it was within the official range plus or minus 30 degrees, definitely in the range for both teams.”

“ I have the chance to learn something every day. I love to jump from one boat to another. A year ago I was sailing around the world on my own and here I am sharing with tremendous guys with a lot of different sailing areas, from the Volvo race, from the Cup. For me it is the first time that I have felt the acceleration of a small multihull, like I love to do on the Swiss lakes, like the D35 or the small really light ones, but Alinghi 5 has the power of a big offshore multi and the acceleration of a small multihull. It is the first time I have felt both these two feelings.”

“ It is quite interesting to be at the helm of a boat like this having behind me Mr Butterworth, and in front of me Mr Warwick (Fleury) and Simon (Daubney), stars I have seen in the papers for so many years, and I have to say: “OK guys and now we have to do that….” And so for me that is quite interesting.”