Valencia, Spain. For the second day in succession, wind failed to make an appearance off Valencia, forcing the abandonment of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup. The cancellation means the Louis Vuitton Cup remains 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 today, but these matches, like yesterday’s, will be pushed to the end of the program.

Tomorrow’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.

Today’s pattern followed yesterday’s example, with the yachts drifting around the course area for nearly three hours while the Race Committee waited for the wind to stabilise sufficiently for racing. At 4.30pm, the officials sent the fleet back to shore, having decided there was no prospect of running races in the prevailing conditions.

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.”

The cancellation also meant Spanish model Laura Ponte, the Spanish ambassador for Swiss watchmaker and BMW ORACLE Racing team sponsor Girard-Perregaux, missed out on the experience of racing with the crew of USA 98 in the 18th man seat. Before joining the crew at the midday dockout, she said she had grown up around boats and was looking forward to the experience of racing with the team.

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