I don't know about you guys but I thought this round was incredibly boring, with very few lead changes during the racing. I blame the course layout for that, starting with the very first leg being a blast reach rather than a traditional upwind leg, where tactics and strategy figure in just as much as speed. With the first leg being a blast reach, it became just a drag race causing enough separation by the time they turned upwind, all the lead boat had to do was cover the trailing boat.

Blow the start?

Game over.

But even when Oracle won the start, they got rolled right away, which wouldn't have happened if the first leg had been a beat. Sure, they probably would have gotten passed later in the race, because it looked to me like ETNZ's boat was just faster, and/or Ashby is just that much better at trimming the wing.

I have much respect for and congratulations to ETNZ, they were clearly the better boat/team, but I still wish the course had been upwind/downwind rather than starting off with a blast reach. It just made it so dull to watch, not at all as exciting as the last cup in San Fran.

Perhaps the greater wind and tide out there in the SFO Bay added to the constant lead changes as well, but this time around it was really dull.