Welcome to the morning after the day before, Day 10 of the 35th America’s Cup, presented by Louis Vuitton.

This is the third day of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Challenger Play-off Semi-finals. Two races will be held today in each of two brackets in this best-of-nine knockout round.

Weather

In a very unofficial poll within the media centre yesterday, the most common big-breeze analogies included “Sporty”, “Dogs off chains” and “ Blowing a ...”.

So, for today, forecasters expected a blowout with 25 knots and gusting to 40 in the morning hours. Looking for the bright side, they thought there was potential the breeze will settle to about 20 knots during the racing window, before gusty conditions ramp up again in the evening.

Wind models early this morning predicted steady 23kt winds with gusts to 35 at 2pm when the wind sampling for the first race of the day is scheduled.

America’s Cup Race Management will closely monitor conditions to determine if racing will occur. Friday is a spare day, so the schedule could easily be pushed back.

If races are sailed today, they should feature longer legs and more of them to maintain the time span of 20 to 22 minutes per match. The wind direction, like yesterday, will provide for optimum racing with an interesting breeze off the hills and flat water at the top end in the south and a chop at the bottom marks out towards Spanish Point.

The races will alternate between Artemis Racing v SoftBank Team Japan matches and Emirates Team New Zealand v Land Rover BAR. The teams will also alternate their side of entry, with SoftBank Team Japan and Land Rover BAR choosing a port-tack entry for their first starts of the day.

Tuesday review

Earlier in the week, at a daily race management media briefing, race director Iain Murray told the media Q&A that the mandatory rules are that the average wind cannot exceed a 24kt average during the five-minute sampling period before the warning for the start.

The only reason to cancel a race after that “comes down to my judgment” as to whether “we are in a dangerous situation. If a boat capsizes,” he said, “we will ‘black flag’ the race and award the race to the non-capsized boat”.

In hindsight, many now question whether the racing should have been abandoned after the carnage of the first two races of the day. Perhaps Murray was pressing too hard to stay on schedule. This is still sailboat racing; not Formula One.

After review of video footage of the capsize of Emirates Team New Zealand at the start of that second race yesterday, it appears that the Kiwi boat’s port rudder hitting the wake of Land Rover BAR and loosing its grip in the water was a contributing cause of the incident. The moment the New Zealand yacht enters the wake zone, the back end of their boat pops up and the nose digs in. And, as Glenn Ashby said: “We went down the mine.”

New Zealand had suffered wing failure shortly after entering the Great Sound for their first race of the day. They nursed the broken boat back to their base, hauled the boat, pulled the broken wing, installed a spare and were back out in 40 minutes, still putting bits and pieces together and setting up systems as they started just on time.

The New Zealand team started just behind BAR, but stuck to then and midway through the race got a chance to pass and took it. They were fast and happy with the boat and its heavy-air performance.

Moments after the Land Rover BAR and Emirates Team New Zealand’s second start, Land Rover BAR cleanly executed a bear-away and began flying. The Kiwis began to follow suit just like they did in the earlier race, but Peter Burling and team launched high on its foils, hit BAR’s wake zone only to have the rudder lose its grip and pop out.

The bows immediately dived into the waves. Their speed went from 25 knots to zero, and within a split second the mast slammed forward and the cat’s hulls pitch-poled into the water. Everyone on board was fine, along with three crew in the water, except for a few cuts and bruises.

The Kiwi shore crew worked through the night to repair the damage to the platform and fairings, and put one wing together out of the pieces from the broken two.

The second day of the play-offs had delivered plenty of breathtaking moments in the three earlier matches as well. Pieces of boats were flying every which way as fairings were torn off by wind and wave. Chase boats followed to pick up the pieces.

Land Rover BAR skipper Sir Ben Ainslie called it “certainly the most exciting and exhilarating racing I’ve ever been involved in”.

Despite the best efforts of the helmsmen to sail conservatively, they all admitted to tense moments with near-capsizes, getting out of sorts, and boat pieces flying off like a rocket ship leaving orbit.

SoftBank Team Japan sailed consistently to earn two wins and now have a 3 -1 lead over Artemis Racing, who struggled much of the day with breakages and boat-control challenges that led to additional penalties. Land Rover BAR, meanwhile, put a point on the board against three wins for Emirates Team New Zealand.

Schedule

SF1, Race 5: Emirates Team New Zealand v Land Rover BAR (2.08pm)

SF2, Race 5: Artemis Racing v SoftBank Team Japan (2.36pm)

SF1, Race 6: Land Rover BAR v Emirates Team New Zealand (3.06pm)

SF2, Race 6: SoftBank Team Japan v Artemis Racing (3.35pm)