America's Cup round one fizzles out

First the postponement flag was raised, then at 13.50pm local time, nearly four hours after the scheduled start, racing was abandoned for the day. Race one will now take place on Wednesday, weather permitting.

The Alinghi camp will be saying, "I told you so" as they didn't want to race in Valencia at this time of year. In this one decision they were vindicated as a temperature of 12 degrees had everyone wearing heavy fleeces and ski hats to keep warm.

The forecast was for winds of around 10 knots, which would have been perfect for the Alinghi catamaran, but a cold front instead brought showers and very light winds that were swinging through more than 80 degrees, making the laying of a fair course all but impossible.

I decided to gauge the Australian interest in the event by watching Fox Sports' coverage at the CYCA, where a crowd of around 60 people was assembled following Monday night twilighting.

While a group of around 20 people pulled up tables where they could see the TV, the vast majority showed little or no interest. There was much less anticipation and excitement than for a football grand final of any code, basically vindicating my own feelings - this has become the "Who Cares" cup.

Most had an opinion on who was the villain, but it was more a case of, "I hope they lose" than wanting the other boat to win.

A sad day for yachting!

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