Friday, November 6, 2009

Racing starts Saturday in Nice

Some words from BMW ORACLE Racing tactician Hamish Pepper, who was happy to have (finally) completed the team's second training session on the water in Nice.

"It was a good day. We got two and half hours in on the water, training against Emirates Team New Zealand. We sailed GBR 75 and they had FRA 93," he said.

"Today was nice. We got out there quite early - around 08:00 - so it was quite cold, and we had about 12 to 15 knots. As the session went on the breeze started to ease and shift a bit, so we had a bit of everything."

Looking ahead to the weather for Saturday's first match against Azzurra - now a later start, he said:

"We have the third start tomorrow. There's a chance of a strong mistral pushing in, so we could have lightish winds in the morning, but later in the afternoon, we're expecting the winds will strengthen quite a bit. So it depends on how quickly they get the first two races in, as to whether we beat the mistral conditions, and if not, whether they have us race in it."


The skippers' press conference in Nice
(Thanks to Bob Grieser - Louis Vuitton for the images)

See more from the preview at the event website.