According to race meteorologists, heavy seas and high winds are expected to dominate the start of the race on Sunday as teams head for Auckland, New Zealand in the fourth leg of the round-the-world sprint.
"Race meteorologist Gonzalo Infante is forecasting a monsoon to develop to the north of Taiwan resulting in north easterly winds of between 35 and 40 knots across the South China Sea over the weekend," race officials said earlier Wednesday.
Saturday, however is shaping up to be a brilliant day, with favorable winds and flat seas for the 60-minute inshore race.
Teams will have to be cautious heading out of Sanya Bay on Sunday as the punishing conditions are expected to take a toll on the boats.
Heading into the start of this weekend's racing at the top of the leaderboard is Team Telefónica, (95 points) who will be looking to hold on to a 15-point lead over CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand (80 points).
They're followed by Groupama, which is in third place with 71 points, and Puma powered by BERG, in at fourth with 48 points.
Team Abu Dhabi and Team Sanya round out the fleet with 39 and 16 points, respectively.
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