Round Robin 1-Day One

Unfortunate start to the 32nd America’s Cup season…no racing today. This is a very unfortunate reality of our sport. If there is no wind, there is no race. With anticipation built up over four years for the first AC from Europe, the fact that there was no race today was a let down for the sailors and spectators alike.

I have taken on a new challenge for this America’s Cup; that of commentating the races for TV. It is a challenge to bring such a technical sport to the public, trying to keep it simple yet exciting. Just to make things a little extra challenging, I am doing it in Italian.

I am working with a great team of people; 80 in total, for La7 which is the Italian rights holder for this Cup. Paolo Cecinelli is the pro and Luca Bontempelli, a journalist, and I are the “color”. I think that is the term for it. We have a nice young girl named Chiara, who runs the Virtual Eye (AC Managements version of Virtual Spectator) for us on the set. Of course we have our colleagues on each race course and around the harbor who bring us stories and round out the picture of what is going on with the whole event. So it is a big operation and all new to me.

Hopefully we will get under way tomorrow. The forecast isn’t great though and we are already stressing out over what we will do if there is no wind tomorrow. There is only so much you can rehash from the past or stories to tell. We need the goods! Hopefully Tuesday Valencia will deliver!