Fear of gale-force easterly winds squashed any hope of racing today on the Hauraki Gulf, postponing Race 4 of the America’s Cup for yet another day. It’s now been seven days since Race 3. In actuality, the weather wasn’t as bad as expected, with the low pressure system hovering east of Auckland moving south more slowly than expected. So while some of the northern and eastern weather stations were measuring significant breezes, the winds around Auckland and on the Gulf were much more moderate through late afternoon.”As it happened, the wind was more southeast than predicted,” said Jon Bilger, head of the Alinghi weather team, “The forecast wasn’t good, but if [the wind] stayed from the southeast there was a possibility of getting a race off.”Given that the effects of the sub-tropical low are expected to intensify, Wednesday will remain a lay day and Thursday is the next scheduled day of racing. High winds are expected, but it’s not completely out of the quesiton.
