By Martyn Herman
(Reuters) – No expense has been spared in Britain’s bid to win the America’s Cup for the first time in its 173-year history, but all the state-of-the-art technology money can buy would be sunk without one age-old skill — meteorology.
When the first-to-seven series against holders New Zealand begins off the Barcelona coast on Saturday, one of the key members of the world-class team assembled at huge cost by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe will not even be on the boat.
Meteorologist Miguel Sanchez Cuenca, known in the business as ‘Capi’, will be on a chase boat watching the action unfold, hoping the long hours spent analysing wind patterns and preparing weather forecasts have paid off.
“The hardest part for forecasting are the unstable days when weather models are totally inconsistent,” the 59-year-old Sanchez Cuenca, a successful international sailor and CEO and meteorologist at Metwind sailing forecasts, told Reuters.
“The weather has been challenging in Barcelona for this America’s Cup with models failing more than expected. Then it’s about intuition and seeing the bigger picture.
“When I make a last-minute call in tricky conditions, it’s exciting and if it helps the team, satisfying.”
While wind is a sailor’s best friend, it can also be fickle and what is expected to be a close-run battle between Ben Ainslie’s British team and Pete Burling’s Kiwis could come down to sail choice on the AC75 foiling boats.
The two competing crews must choose the size of their mainsail and hoist it 40 minutes before they leave dock while they can leave the decision on the smaller jib sail until around 20 minutes before the race.
Those decisions will depend on current wind strength and whether it is likely to increase or decrease during the hour of racing — which is where Sanchez Cuenca’s input is crucial.
METICULOUS PLANNING
Sanchez Cuenca, a Mallorcan native who has worked at numerous Olympic Games as a coach and meteorologist with the Spanish team and whose first America’s Cup involvement was in Valencia in 2007, was approached by Ineos Britannia two years ago having been weatherman for Luna Rossa in 2021 when the Italian boat lost to New Zealand.
While he boasts local knowledge of Barcelona he says the Mediterranean at this time of year is unpredictable and the prospects for the opening weekend are “not very promising” with predictions of light and unsteady winds — hardly conducive to what is described as Formula 1 on water.
His planning is meticulous. Every day for two years he has downloaded weather data for Barcelona and for the past two months has worked full-time for INEOS Britannia, living and breathing weather models and satellite data.
His day begins at 5am, preparing an early weather report before updating that at a mid-morning briefing with the coaches who then prime Ainslie and his crew.
“The main task is the sail choice so we have to be quite sure of the weather expected about an hour before,” he said.
“The important thing is matching the weather we have now and then looking at the trend, will there be a big or small increase or decrease (in the wind)? If we’re not sure we will see what the rival is putting on and match them.
“If we’re sure we go with what we are confident on.”
Once racing starts, Capi’s work for the day is done and it will come down to the skill of the competing crews.
“These are the best sailors in the world I think we are prepared for everything,” he said. “Whatever they will face, they will sail it.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
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