NEWS

America's Cup «» : The weather will play into Team New Zealand's hands this coming weekend

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The weather forecast for June 24, when the fifth and sixth matches between Oracle Team USA and Emirates Team New Zealand for the right to possess the America's Cup «» , plays into the hands of the New Zealanders, says meteorologist professor Mark Orams. Weak winds of 13 knots or less are forecast for Bermuda with weakening to seven knots.

As the races of the first and second day of the America's Cup finals «showed», the New Zealand team's catamaran is more efficient in weak winds than the Americans' catamaran.

Recall that Team NZ won all of the first four matches of the finals. Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill has been relying on a five-day break during which the team will try to do their best to improve their performance, but according to Team NZ skipper and sail-wing trimmer Glenn Ashby, it is impossible to significantly accelerate the boat in such a short time.

«No weather model predicts winds above 13 knots in Bermuda next week," said Mark Orams. - That's not what Oracle was hoping for. They are much more competitive against New Zealand at higher speeds. Both of the races they managed to win in the qualifying series were in wind conditions in excess of 13 knots».

«There is currently a slow-moving, high-pressure system in the North Atlantic. - This is responsible for the weak north-easterly and easterly winds which prevailed in Bermuda during the first four races of the Cup final. It will also reign supreme this coming weekend».

Designed specifically for America's Cup and now available to all, PredictWind uses four different forecast models. When all four models produce similar results, forecast accuracy is high. These four models show 11-13 knots, 7-8 knots, 10-13 knots and 7-10 knots during the fifth and sixth races on Saturday.

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