The Races:1st Race:
K-Challenge bt China Team
2nd Race:
Team ORIGIN bt Luna Rossa
3rd Race:
Emirates Team New Zealand bt Italia Challenge
4th Race:
Alinghi bt Greek Challenge
The Day:
Got to the Viaduct at around 7:30am, parked on
Halsey. Village not open yet, so hung around. Seems like they were still putting the 'village' together as the day progressed as cre
ws from various signage & promo companys ran around setting up stages, boards, plants etc etc. But by the afternoon, most things were in place.
The bridge from Te Whero across to the big area infront of the old pink Alinghi base works well, when there is not a heap of boats coming in or out (mainly at the start or end of race days). The whole area from the edge of the Team New Zealand base, all the way down the parking lot infront of the Alinghi base to the old Team New Zealand base is been transformed into the 'village' or a place where
you can loose ALOT of money fast. For a start, Team Origin, BMW Oracle & Team New Zealand have merchandise stores along there. At around $100 for a shirt, your wallet gets lighter and lighter. Also in the Line7 tent (Where all the cool Em
irates Team NZ stuff is) there are old merchandise from teams from the 2007 Americas Cup as well as all the new Line7 official Louis Vuitton Pacific Series clothing, jackets, polos, t's, hats, you name it, they have go it.
There is also the Skycity Bar, quite cool, nice and big for mingling. Breakfast in the morning, allthough this morning not many people tried it out. Happy hour from 4-6pm.
Stage at the far end outside the old Team NZ base, quite cool actually as the public can stand in on the press conferances.
No big boys there today really so I thought I would sit that one out and come home & write this, but come the elimination rounds, Ill be there!
The day overall was overcast, mildly cool, enough so I had to go buy one of those expensive jackets as I didnt bring one from home. Bugger.
Breeze 17+ knots. Drama? Not too much, everyone played it safe, except for Greek Challenge who smacked the bow of one of the BMW Oracle boats into the stern of the other resulting in some pretty hefty damage (so I have been told, b
ut not life threatening)
On the stern of the boats are what I have been told are electronic devices/wands that pick up if a boat comes to close to the other when it hits this protruding device. Nothing flash to my eyes, just looked like a bit of fluro string thread through a couple bits of conduit pipe out the back but who knows, it certainly must have been ringing bells when the Greeks charged foward!
Lots of people there, not crowded, give it a few more days yet. Tomorrow is a Saturday and no place turns out a spectator fleet like Auckland, so if the weather is better than today, expect a crowd, both in harbour & on water.
Oh, saw Larry's boat go out early this morning too, Zenji, lovely!
The Coverage:
The coverage of the event on TVNZ Freeview is good, not slick but good, I mean, its early days, they had delays and sort of what do we do now moments but overall, its better than nothing. Im sure they will flatten it out as time goes on. The radio from on the water is not that good, very scratchy and hard to follow, once again Im sure they will iron it out as it seems no one has had a practice run of anything, as I said before, they were still putting up signs and things this afternoon at the village and re-arranging things so it takes time. Remember we have another 2 weeks of this yet so plenty of time to get it right.
Big day tomorrow, here is the line up:
1st Race:
BMW Oracle Racing vs Emirates Team New Zealand (the one I have been waiting for, Russell Coutts vs Dean Barker!)
2nd Race:
Team Shosholoza vs Greek Challenge (Lets see what damage they can do this time)
3rd Race:
China Team vs Italia Challange (2 sort of evenly matched teams, Im picking Italia)
4th Race:
Luna Rossa vs Alinghi (Another good match up, Alinghi in the pocket but you never know with Luna Rossa sometimes)
Bye: Team ORIGIN
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