Wind failed to make an appearance off Valencia yesterday, Tuesday 17 April, forcing the abandonment of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup for the second day in succession. The team at BMW were appeased by yet another runway mascot as 18th man on board, Spanish model Laura Ponte. Yachts drifted around the course area for nearly three hours, while the Race Committee waited for the wind to stabilise sufficiently to start racing. At 1630hrs, officials sent the fleet back to shore, having decided there was no prospect of running races in the prevailing conditions.

The cancellation leaves the Louis Vuitton Cup stalled, with no matches raced so far in Round Robin One. USA 98 was scheduled to race against the South African Shosholoza and Swedish Victory Challenge teams yesterday; all the cancelled matches will be pushed to the end of the program.

Today’s schedule is for BMW Oracle Racing to meet Luna Rossa Challenge, one of the so-called ‘Big Four’ teams in a clash that will be watched with keen anticipation. In the second flight of the day, USA 98 has a bye.

BMW ORACLE Racing navigator, Peter Isler commented: ‘The crew was eager to get going today, especially after the delay and disappointment of not racing yesterday. However, the weather conditions this morning were not much more hopeful than yesterday and our weather team correctly predicted that there was little chance of improvement. The good news is that we believe conditions will be better tomorrow and that we will be able to complete at least one race.’