The decision was made at 19.50 CET (7.50 local time): Wind speeds of between 18 and 24 knots and heavy swell caused race officer Harold Bennett to postpone the fourth match again.
The high swell in the Hauraki Gulf is also a danger to the spectator boats, says Bennett.
Whether tomorrow will be used for another start attempt now depends on the weather conditions. If the wind and waves allow a race, both the challenger team "Alinghi" and the defending champions "Team New Zealand" are ready to start on their race-free day according to the schedule. If the Swiss win this race, the decisive match could take place at the weekend.
This is to be hoped for, as all subsequent races in the coming week could again fall victim to New Zealand's changeable weather. The meteorologist of the New Zealand team, Roger Badham, warns of the passage of a frontal system that is currently still over the Southern Ocean.
"If the races go ahead after the weekend, the whole schedule will have to be rewritten," Badham told the New Zealand Herald newspaper.
By then at the latest, the 31st America's Cup final will be well on its way to becoming the longest race in Cup history. With 18 race postponements, this "record" is currently still held by the 1899 final. "Shamrock I" and "Columbia" alone took thirteen days until the first of the three races off New York was decided. The reason for the postponements at the time was usually heavy fog. The first postponement due to strong winds occurred four years later in the final between "Shamrock III" and "Reliance".
