Sailing

Weather Scrubs Marquee Cup Match

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Saturday, April 28, 2007

VALENCIA, Spain, April 27 -- Weather woes struck the America's Cup again Friday, scrubbing a highly anticipated matchup of challenger front-runners BMW Oracle and Emirates Team New Zealand.

Under leaden skies and spitting rain, a sailing breeze never settled in on the Cup south course, where top challengers were lined up to race. Winds were better on the north course, where back-of-the-pack teams Plus 39 from Italy and Shosholoza from South Africa scored victories. But spectator attention was focused to the south, where race officer Harold Bennett was unable to get off a start in light, fluky breezes.

The key races finally were called off at 6:30 p.m. after teams waited more than four hours. It means matches pitting BMW Oracle and Team New Zealand, the top Italian entries Mascalzone Latino and Luna Rossa and Spain vs. Luna Rossa all must wait until Saturday. Those races would conclude the first round robin of challenger trials, which originally was slated to end six days ago.

Light winds forced cancellation on six of the first eight days of the season. Once round robin one is finished, competitors will roll directly into the first day of round robin 2, which starts Sunday if there are no further delays. Challengers will continue racing daily until the round is complete and seven of the 11 challengers are eliminated.

-- Angus Phillips