Clear, warm, dry. A real beaut of a morn. Just back from an early-morn mtg of the Challenger Commission over in town and there is already a crowd lining the foreshore and milling about in the AC Park. There was much more and better local promotion of the event here than in previous Acts, or so one senses. Moving the fireworks to the opening of the regatta was smart, too, helping to draw the public's attention early on.

And, as the late Pope is reported to have said, "if it does not happen on TV, it does not happen." While we don't see the live TV on the water, those on shore who did see yesterday's coverage said it was brilliant.

As we have done at each of the pre-regattas from Marseille Act 1 on, and as we mentioned in last evening's post, BMWOR hosted another "neighborhod BBQ" here at our base in the paddock. These have been promoted and organized by, among others, our operations manager Laurent "Father" Esquier (FRA/USA). Full marks to Laurent, and to Dicko for green-lighting these, as they are good for our team, the event and the Cup in general.

None of us likes losing, especially to ETNZ, but everyone is jazzed about what a great race it was. Today's opponents are China Team (1-4) and the Swedish Team, Victory Challenge (3-2). Just because their records are not all that flash doesn't mean we can look past them to our matches with Luna Rossa tomorrow and Alinghi on Tue. The Swedish team is clearly better back on SWE-63 than they were with 73 in Malmo last month. China Team was ahead for a good bit of the first leg of their match with Alinghi, so you cannot count CHN-69 out especially in today's lighter air. Speaking of which...

Should be a good medium breeze, flat water test today.


For today's pairing list, please click here.