Set Your Alarms

31/07/2013 - San Francisco (USA,CA) - 34th America's Cup - Open training © ACEA / PHOTO GILLES MARTIN-RAGET

8.15am tomorrow morning (NZT) is the opening race of the Louis Vuitton Semi-Finals. Artemis Racing vs Luna Rossa Challenge. Hopefully there will be the full fruit audio-visual package, with onboard video and all the sailors mic'ed up (we hope this is the case as it is being shown on NBC in the US, and the depth of coverage from the round robins wouldn't be enough for broadcast).

What we do know is that Ken Read will be commentating (Yay!) with Todd Harris (not a yachtie) on the play-by-plays and Gary "I have to explain everything with unnecessary complexity" Jobson rambling about how the boats don't seem to have spinnaker poles anymore.

In terms of the actual racing, the ACEA, Oracle and other media outlets are saying not to discount Artemis, and some have gone so far as to say they are faster on all points of sail.

Even if this is the case (unlikely), turning a corner will still be an issue for the relatively green team on their boat 2.

Luna Rossa have done over 80 days of sailing on their boat, and although they received a number of pantsings from ETNZ, they still have had race practice.

The Semis are a best of 7 (first to 4) series, with a race each day for two days, then one rest day, until ETNZ's LVC Final opponent is found - if it gets to a 3 all situation, the deciding race would be 16th August NZT, however, it could be all over by Sunday morning NZT.

The LVC Finals then start 18th August NZT with 2 races per day for a first to 7 series.
Let the races for keeps begin.