Weather Defensive
Excerpt from a story this morning in the International Herald Tribune:AC Management wouldn't release weather data on Valencia, so the Swiss team, which conducted the analysis, did its own research.
After analyzing the weather buoys on the northern "Romeo" course for wind in the afternoon when racing is scheduled, sailing has only been possible for half the number of days in April.
That is well down on the average of 80-90 percent of days being suitable for sailing from April through July since 2000.
"We still stand by our analysis that Valencia is a good sailing venue, it should not be judged on a single meteorological event," Bilger said.
But Valencia's Meteorological and Climate Center head, Jose Angel Nunez, said the event should have started in May to avoid possible scheduling problems."The wind that the competition is looking for won't be arriving until June and July," he said. "Winds are frequent in spring but not established until the summer, when they will be much more consistent. There's a better probability, frequency and intensity of wind the closer we get to summer, when you have the better atmospheric conditions for racing — it's evident."
Butterworth said the schedule wasn't only determined by the wind.
"The timing of the Cup was set certainly to fit into the market of television and then other events earlier and later in the year that could conflict with it," Butterworth said, referring to cycling's Tour de France.
Full story
Labels: ACM, Alinghi, Know Your Competition, Marketing, TV
