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But shortly after the 10 minute gun had sounded for the first match between Luna Rossa and One World, the postponement flag was raised.

Forty minutes later, all racing had been abandoned for the day as the breeze climbed into the twenty knot region and beyond. The decision to abandon racing for the day will not have come as a complete surprise to the four teams involved.The day's forecast had always suggested that getting the racing under way bore little more than a 50/50 chance.

While today's cancellation is the 17th day out of a total of 47 that has been lost to the weather, the forecast for tomorrow looks more promising with west southwest winds of 9-17 knots.

Russell Coutts's Team Alinghi leads Oracle BMW Racing and skipper Chris Dickson by 3-0 in the best-of-seven round. Coutts's crew needs one more victory to advance to the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals, scheduled to begin January 11.

Peter Gilmour's OneWorld Challenge is tied 1-1 with defending Louis Vuitton Cup champs Prada Challenge and skipper Francesco de Angelis in the other match.

OneWorld has won two of three races, but is tied due to a one point penalty imposed by the America's Cup Arbitration Panel. Each team needs to win three more races to advance to the Semi Final Repechage Round, while it'll meet the loser of Alinghi-Oracle BMW Racing.