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Racing Postponed Tuesday, NZL-82 Launched

The all-Italian match from RR#1 will be sailed Wednesday morning
Bob Grieser/louis Vuitton

After three hours of postponement, the Louis Vuitton PRO, Peter Reggio, pulled the plug on Tuesday’s racing because of high wind conditions. The race that was supposed to be run, the Round Robin 1 leftover between Mascalzone Latino and Prada, will be sailed Wednesday some time after 10:30 a.m. on a 4-leg, 12.5-mile shortened course.

The first races of Round Robin 2 will be sailed Wednesday afternoon. The schedule change means that, weather permitting, both Italian teams will race twice Wednesday; Mascalzone Latino will race OneWorld, and Luna Rossa will race Oracle. Ouch.

The other pairings for Wednesday are the two teams tied in fourth place with 4-4 records, Team Dennis Conner and GBR, and the winless French versus Russell Coutts’s Alinghi squad. The Swedes, who have chosen to replace SWE-63 with SWE-73 for this round, are off until Thursday.

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Team New Zealand has quietly launched their second boat, NZL-82, and will begin test sailing, “the first nice day,” according to Tom Schnackenburg. As with its sistership, NZL-81, NZL-82 was shrouded from the top of the deck to the bottom of its keel for launching, and will wear the same deck-to-waterline security skirts as NZL-81.

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