The one thing that all teams battle in every America’s Cup is time. They never have enough, and after a thrilling first regatta in May in Sardinia that feels like yesterday, suddenly the second Prelim Regatta, PR2 Naples, is upon us. It is now just one week to go before the first day of official practice racing on Thursday 24th September and all the teams are into their final preparations and eagerly eyeing the weather forecasts being delivered by the team meteorologists.
Out on the Bay of Naples this week, several teams have been getting in some final practice and yesterday (Wednesday) we saw GB1, the Challenger of Record, close to the shoreline off ‘the lungomare’ of the city and looking accurate and fast. It was a spectacle to behold and certainly stopped the Italian passers-by who marvelled at the speed that the AC40 yachts can generate.
The Race Village is being built at pace down at the Via Francesco Caracciolo and all will be set for a regatta that has more storylines than ever before. Can Luna Rossa, with new team line-ups in both boats, continue their winning ways of Sardinia? Will Emirates Team New Zealand revert to winning form and dominate the regatta? Can GB1, who everyone is wary of, string a set podium results together and challenge hard for victory? Or will the star-studded La Roche-Posay Racing Team or the clinical Tudor Team Alinghi come thundering to the front? How about ARC Team USA – they could well be the story of Naples…it’s all to play for.
Long-range forecasts in the Mediterranean are notoriously inaccurate, but almost all of the models are suggesting a wind flow from the northeast – a wind that the locals call the ‘Grecale.’ If true, this wind direction flows down off the ‘city wall’ that is formed by the Vomero and Posillipo steep hills and funnels down the grand avenues (like Via Toledo and Via Chiaia) to arrive at the harbour front.
At the top end of the predicted course, the stone structure of the Castel dell’Ovo can block or split this air flow and that means that the sailors will be extremely cautious of an early lead off the starting line. Seb Menzies, co-helm for ETNZ gave a cryptic clue on this in a recent interviews saying: “There’s points on the first upwind which will be extremely crucial and points that won’t be as crucial, which are super-important to know and then there’s also little fine parts of each day. Obviously, no day’s the same so how each team can decipher what’s coming and what will be next will be quite cool.”
As with all sailing, it could well be a case of ‘never giving up’ as the course may well offer opportunities everywhere. Winds are expected to be at the lighter end of the scale with thermal sea breezes potentially building in the early afternoon on flat waters of the Bay of Naples. The wind range for racing AC40 yachts as set out in the Race Conditions V2 is 7.5 knots at the lower end to 21 knots at the upper end measured by weather sampling onboard the Committee Boat vessel and specific, dedicated marks on the course.
Naples is getting ready for the ‘regatta of the year’ and with the hotels filling up and the streets abuzz with fans, it’s the only place to be between the 24-27 September.
Naples. Be there.
