Midday Update – America’s Cup World Series, race day one

1200 – When following today’s match races at AC World Series Naples, keep in mind that one of the helmsmen is a 23-year-old Swede sailing in his first America’s Cup World Series regatta.

Ekberg is touted as Sweden’s most promising sailor in the 49er class and will skipper Sweden’s entry in the upcoming Red Bull Youth America’s Cup (Sept. 1-4). But he’s never raced against the caliber of competition offered at an AC World Series and today he squares off against one of the more experienced crews in the fleet, Chris Draper and Luna Rossa Piranha.

“It’s the best possible way for us to prepare for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup,” says Ekberg. “Getting used to the boats has been a challenge. It will be exciting to see if we can manage the boat as well as the others. There are some great sailors out here. It might be a good thing I don’t know too much about all of them!”

Three match races are scheduled before the first two fleet races of the seven-race series. For Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker, the racing offers a welcome respite from the past five months of testing on the team’s AC72s. But Barker is also aware of the team’s long-term goal.

“We’d like to get on the podium in both events (fleet and match racing) but we’re up against some pretty tough teams,” says Barker. “Our first match race (tomorrow), for example, is against Luna Rossa Swordfish and those guys are sailing really well here. But we’re looking to do as well as we can here while keeping one eye on getting ready for the Louis Vuitton Cup.”

Racing this afternoon is scheduled to start at 1345, the match racing qualifier between China Team and HS Racing. The match won’t be broadcast live but can be followed on VirtualEye.

Two more match races follow – featuring J.P. Morgan BAR (Ben Ainslie) versus Energy Team (Yann Guichard) and Luna Rossa Piranha (Draper) versus Artemis Racing White (Ekberg) – before the first fleet race, scheduled at 14:50. This racing will be broadcast live on the America’s Cup YouTube channel.

0915 - It’s a beautiful morning here in Naples, with bright sunshine a forecast
for warm temperatures this afternoon.

In terms of wind the forecast is for Westerlies of 8-10 knots at race time,
building moderately and trending slightly right throughout the afternoon to 11-
14 knots.

Racing begins at 1345 CET with the Match Race Qualifier between China Team and HS Racing. This will be live on VirtualEye.

Video coverage begins at 1400 on youtube.com/americascup with the first two
Match Racing Quarter Finals (J.P. Morgan BAR vs. Energy Team followed by
Luna Rossa Piranha vs Artemis Racing).

Then it’s the first two Fleet Races, beginning at 1450 and 1525. Racing is
scheduled to finish just before 1600.

Source; America's Cup Media