Coming all the way from an island in the middle of the Atlantic, Mackenzie Cooper, skipper of Bermuda’s Red Bull Youth America’s Cup crew on Team BDA was finding the conditions on and the terrain around Lake Garda, Italy a bit perplexing.

“It is very different scenery compared to what we’re used to,” Cooper said. “We haven’t seen mountains this big, some of us, ever. And the weather is really confusing. It boggles the mind. There is a lot going on with the clouds and all sorts of different weather. We are hopeful for some better breeze tomorrow.”

Yes, Bermuda’s Red Bull Youth America’s Cup Team will have to wait another day for racing on Lake Garda in Italy. In stark contrast to the last few days when Lake Garda has delivered the brisk, flat water conditions for which it is famous, the opening races of the GC32 Racing Tour’s Riva Cup had to be put on hold due to a lack of wind.

Mackenzie Cooper, the skipper, helmsman Dimitri Stevens, and crew Peter Dill, Owen Siese, Philip Hagen and Mustafa Ingham, who make up the remainder of Team BDA, have been training full time in the GC32 since January.

The trip to this fast-paced regatta in Italy will give them the chance to race against world-class sailors in a boat that is their training platform for Bermuda’s Youth America’s Cup Regatta

Late yesterday morning, the eleven GC32 catamarans ventured out of the Fraglia Vela de Riva, at the north end of Lake Garda, to the race area in a promising moderate southerly “Ora” wind.

Just minutes before the first start, the wind vanished and a haze appeared on the lake, partially shrouding the towering mountains that surround Riva del Garda.

After 40 minutes of waiting and no improvement, the AP over H flags were raised and the boats returned to the Fraglia Vela to remain on standby. Sadly the wind was gone for the rest of the afternoon.

Principal race officer Stuart Childerley explained: “There is quite a lot of change going on around here with different weather systems — that has created instability.”