Falcon, Thank you for posting the photos of yesterday's race -- we didn't make it over there but my little one was thrilled to see these high-tech sailing vessels!

Long post below is results of today. Latest info is at http://www.cupinfo.com/
Tomorrow is going to be the real show!

Louis Vuitton ACWS New York:
Saturday, May , Race Day 1

Saturday Outlook:
Starts scheduled for 2:07 pm, 2:35 pm, and 3:03 pm, local time in New York (Eastern Time), subject to weather conditions.

Conditions:
Winds: E 6-7 kts becoming SSE in the afternoon (NWS), E 4kt (WindFinder), NNE 6-7 kts (Windguru). Cloudy.

Tides: High Tide 9:22 am, Low Tide 3:44 pm. (NOAA predictions for Battery Park Station) Racing will be in an ebb tide approaching low tide. Tidal range is about 6 feet. Tidal flow in combination with river current can be significant and will affect tacking and mark rounding, especially when headed up river (north).
See Race Area Map

Racing Preview:
Emirates Team New Zealand leads the overall standings, though Land Rover BAR has been gaining on them. Generally there have been two tiers among the six teams in terms of results, with ETNZ, BAR, and Oracle Team USA being dominant. One of the questions for the 2016 ACWS season is whether the second tier teams will break into some degree of parity with the top three. The most recent regatta, in Oman, saw a win for Groupama Team France, their first. SoftBank Team Japan has sailed very well at times, but struggled to turn that into more than a mid-pack finish, and have not won a race in the four events to date. Artemis Racing has been the hard luck team, sailing fast, but a string of incidents with broken gear, contact with rocks, and a head-on collision with an umpire boat that has hindered their accumulation of points despite winning the Bermuda LV ACWS last year.

Racing in New York will be difficult with tides, current, debris, erratic winds that threatens to be very light Saturday and very strong on Sunday. Likely this weekend will see some shakeup in the status quo.

Race 1 Attempt 1:
Race 1 start sequence underway at 2:04 pm for 2:08 start. Slow drifting start, JPN, USA, NZL are over early. Penalty on BAR. Boats start headed off from the NY shore for the reaching mark. Current is overwhelming Japan and Britain, who will drift too low to clear it, and can't make headway against the flow. The others head downstream, very slowly. Wind has vanished and boats look at a dead stop, floating with the current. This race attempt looks likely to abandoned, followed by a wait for actual wind to return. At 2:18 the first try is officially abandoned.

Waiting:
The Regatta Director is monitoring wind conditions. The sea breeze is expected to fill in from the south, though is doing so slowly, deterred by the cloud layers. The window for racing closes by 4:00 pm. Not much wind is needed to hold a race, but the direction needs to be consistent.

Latest update is a targeted 3:20 pm start, subject to Race Committee evaluation of the conditions. Some wind has filled in and the boats are moving.

Race 1 Attempt 2:
Start sequence underway. Wind does not stay up through the sequence and the race is abandoned just before the gun. The television window will close at 3:30, but Race Management will try to fit in a race before the 4:00 deadline for maintaining the Race Area on the water. Expect next try for a start at 3:30 pm. A race today, if it happens, would be a provisional substitute for the first race on Sunday. Tomorrow's conditions looks to be very strong, with winds in the upper teens or higher. Sunday's races also count for double points.

Race 1 Attempt 3:
The Race Committee will set the course and try for a short race, start time 3:45. Wind continues to fill in, and the possibility of getting one race in is looking good. Start slips back to 3:50, but there is enough wind now so that the AC45F yachts are able to get up on foils. Again, this is a substitute race, which will remain unofficial unless it is needed to replace a delayed race tomorrow.

Substitute Race: Racing is off on short course. Japan leads at Gate 2, with France second. At Gate 3 it is Japan, France close behind, but FRA on port crosses ahead of Artemis coming into the gate on starboard, forcing the Swedes to duck. ETNZ and LR BAR round out the order at Gate 3. USA into 3rd after France is penalized for the port-starboard infraction with Artemis. Emirates Team New Zealand has a bad wrap in their roller-furler, drops back.

Upriver toward the finish in front of North Cove Marina, JPN still leading, soaking low. Oracle separates from Team Japan, sailing upriver, hoping to come back on a hot angle to the finish. Japan takes first place. Artemis approaches the line, but is too far downriver and will have to tack out and back to finish. They do so in time to finish second. France is coming to the line for third, with a much faster Oracle, now on their hot angle, nearly nipping them, but finishing 4th by three seconds. Land Rover BAR and ETNZ round out the finish.

To emphasize, this substitute is not considered an official race, but it could become official if the start of the first race is delayed on Sunday. SoftBank Team Japan takes their first #1 finish in a Louis Vuitton ACWS event, though unofficial. Artemis Racing second, Groupama Team France third, Oracle Team USA fourth, Land Rover BAR fifth, and Emirates Team New Zealand sixth.

First start tomorrow is set for 2:07 pm ET in New York. Three Fleet races planned. And plenty of wind expected!

The boats are really close to NY. I am not seeing much with a 400mm zoom. I am considering getting on a bike around 10 am tomorrow, heading to NY and making a day of it. Anybody know if the Water Taxi will run tomorrow morning from Liberty Landing to WFC?

I considered the Hyatt Pier but I also suspect it's going to be jammed with people. Other options I'm toying with are:

J. Owen Grundy park/pier a block south of Hyatt-

The ferry pier about 3 more blocks south of there (go down Hudson and take a left on Sussex)-

The park down at the foot of Washington St. (Morris Canal Park, maybe?) but that view may be partly blocked by the Goldman Sachs building-

Sure isn't much wind out there right now. If it doesn't pick up they'll cancel the race today. Sunday should be dynamite racing...

The absolute best place to watch from land is the HYATT PIER in Jersey City, NJ - Bring binoculars because the boats are small and will be racing on the Manhattan side of the river. These photo were take from the HYATT PIER

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Where do you think will be a good spot(s) to view it from the Jersey side this weekend? I've looked at the maps already, but want to hear from someone who's seen it in person as well.

TIA!

I watched the boats go through their dry run of the course. The boats are sleek and amazing to watch when the rise up out of the water and sail over the surface like gliders.

races are from 2-3:30 both days.

What's the best time(s) to watch Saturday or sunday?

This is going to be interesting:

Practice tomorrow in pouring rain and 8 knots out of the northeast. It ain't happening, IMO.

Light winds SSE on Saturday. Single-digit winds = boring racing.

Sunday looking like NW winds up to 20 knots. Having sailed NY Harbor for 20 years, I can tell you that the winds are kinda nuts coming off/around the buildings by Harborside and Newport so the trimmers will be really busy. Sign me up for Sunday viewing!

So anybody got the perfect place to watch from this side? Wish I had a friend with a balcony on the 20th floor of a building on the water...

Watch the races from our of our private yachts http://sailnyc.net

This Saturday & Sunday we are sailing from 1-3pm departing Jersey City, NJ - we will get real close and you can enjoy wine, beer, or rum while you watch these boats pass us at 40MPH

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That's what I'm saying, a 1/4 mi is nothing to these boats, they'd barely have their sails trimmed before needing to tack again! It's like racing Formula 1 cars on a running track.

Wow, that is one tight course for boats that can hit 50MPH in the right conditions. Longest leg is only 1/2NM. Viewing will be pretty limited from the JC side if that's correct, so bring binoculars.

Guess we'll see what the final course layout is pretty soon. Hopefully a lot better viewing from the NJ side...

I found these maps on an unofficial Cup sites. This is probably wrong, the course seems absurdly small.




http://www.sail-nyc.com/americas-cup-and-classic-harbor-line/

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B, this is definitely NOT crazy. These boats are WICKED fast with seasoned pros aboard. The course won't be set until the actual wind conditions are known but in the prevailing SW wind they can make a straight shot up/down the Hudson River. The course is generally set to include one upwind leg where the tacking gets fun if two boats are close and that's more likely to be down in the open part of the harbor.

There's little barge traffic on weekends and reduced ferry service, so that's really not an issue. IF the CG opts to close the river (which they've done before for other races) there's a notice to mariners. If they do that it's more of an issue to keep the yahoos in their speedboats out of the way, not the commercial traffic.

Practice racing on Friday. Stay tuned:

https://www.americascup.com/en/news/20 ... 16-calendar-released.html

That is going to be quite a show. I am hoping for stiff breezes so they can show off their foils.

That's crazy! It seems like a very constrained area for boats of that size and speed. If they're tacking down the Hudson against the usual S wind they'll be coming about every couple of minutes.

Even if they can suspend barge traffic are they going to suspend all the ferries?