America's Cup Rialto: November 23 - A weird day on the Waitemata
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 23 Nov 2020 22:20 NZDT
23 November 2020
Te Rehutai with Britannia partially obscured by haze out to sea - November 23, 2020 - Waitemata Harbour - America's Cup 36 © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
Monday was a day in waiting. Waiting for a weather system to pass through with strong easterlies predicted for the following day.
The Waitemata exhibited all the usual signs of a strong onshore blow out of the east - Gulf islands "floating" on the horizon, and light to no breeze for most of the morning.
The two teams, INEOS Team UK and Emirates Team New Zealand both set up to the north of Rangitoto Island sailing in whatever wind they could find.
Eventually the wind settled in from the North/North West - which on a race day would have brought Course B into play which runs the length of the Rangitoto Channel, and parallels the North Shore beaches - great for the cliff top and beach viewers, with Takapuna Grammar School being the prime spot if the breeze blows from this direction during one of the three upcoming regattas.
Emirates Team New Zealand was first to tow out, splashing at 1000hrs and docking out an hour later. The Brits took a more measured view of the forecast and left a couple of hours later.
A steady breeze of 6-7kts eventually settled in, with Te Rehutai returning after a seven hour session - long by the Kiwi standards, but probably necessary as they worked up the new boat.
Britannia showed up around 1730hrs doing a few speed runs in the race course area before heading home.
Winds peaked around the minimum wind strength for racing 6-7kts.
For those on shore, the most interesting aspect of the day was having a squiz at Te Rehutai - which proved to be a very interesting piece of design as come of the images below reveal.
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