There was a special feeling in the Port Vell, Barcelona as Emirates Team New Zealand and INEOS Britannia docked-out of a packed waterway and despite the drizzle, crowds thronged around the harbour as packed pleasure-craft honked horns to send off these two elite teams that are locked in battle for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.
With low cloud cover sucking up the wind, initially the Race Committee went into postponement but as the clouds slowly cleared and separated, in came a tricky and puffy south westerly breeze that filled to a maximum of 12 knots in the puffs but could cruelly leave wind holes at will right across the racecourse.
Racing got underway after a short postponement with INEOS Britannia struggling to get into flight down at the bottom of the pre-start box with three minutes to go, while Emirates Team New Zealand were well into their drills to start at the port end of the line.
