After today’s postponement the wind conditions look to be lighter for Wednesday and should allow for racing to begin as scheduled at 1:15 pm PT. Races 11 and 12 are on the docket and if Emirates Team New Zealand sweeps both it’ll win the America’s Cup for a third time.

The Kiwis lead the America’s Cup Finals 7-1 over ORACLE TEAM USA. The first team to reach 9 points will hoist the Cup.

The forecast is for winds between 14 and 17 knots, potentially gusting higher later in the afternoon. That could be the lightest average wind in this final series, and might produce different results.

“At the moment we look good in higher winds and maybe they look better in lower winds, but that might change in the next few days,” said ORACLE TEAM USA designer Dirk Kramers, at a media briefing following the postponement.

The defender looks better in higher winds due in part to the series of modifications it undertook last Friday in the quest to improve upwind performance.

Kramers was coy in his explanation of the improvements. “The obvious changes were we went to the short spine (bowsprit). There were probably four or five more changes, all visible to the naked eye. So I challenge you to find them.”

Emirates Team New Zealand designer Nick Holroyd picked up the conversation from there. “I think there’s been some rake change in the wing, beyond that where they’ve taken the spine structure away saves you a bunch of weight, which opens up opportunities to do things elsewhere. But I’ll go back and terrorize the recon department to find more,” said Holroyd.

A strong ebb (outgoing) tide will lower the wind limits to 21 knots for the first race on Wednesday and 20 knots for the second race. Although the low limits were a hindrance to racing on Tuesday, the ebb tide serves to open up the racecourse, and if the wind is as forecast, shouldn’t cause a postponement.

“We’ve seen the game change drastically from very one-sided track in flood (incoming) tides with good control to having an open racecourse,” said Holroyd. “The way the guys are thinking on the boat has to change quickly.”

The two designers spoke this afternoon following the postponement of racing. They both agree that working on the AC72 design development has been the most fun challenge they’ve undertaken.

“Essentially we’ve taken a two-dimensional sport and made it three dimensional, and it’s pretty fun,” said Holroyd.

“Something similar to this is the future,” said Kramers. “As far as pure spectacle this is great, and we might not see it again.”

I agree that the spectacle is unprecedented. From what I have seen during the races, Until two days ago I felt Oracle was faster in light air. Without a doubt Oracle upped their game during races 9 & 10.