Simon Scullion

Yet another day without wind!

So, flights 4 & 5 planned for today. We’ll see.

My predictions are here

The first week of the Louis Vuitton Cup has seen a lot of waiting, some interesting results, and already a big upset with Mascalzone Latino beating Emirates Team New Zealand in the first flight back on Friday.

The table is looking more or less as I would have expected, though with the leaders in a diferent order. With only three flights raced for all but three teams, only Ellison’s BMW Oracle Racing and the Italians Mascalzone Latino and Luna Rossa are unbeaten.

I think United Internet Team Germany will be diappointed with how their campaign has started and maybe have under-achieved during the first week. On the other hand, Mascalzone Latino and Victory Challenge will both be very happy to have got wins in all their races so far.

 Predictions Roundup

My predictions for Flights 1 & 2 weren’t too good, I only managed to pick 6 out of 10, with flight one particularly bad, I only got 2 correct!

Flight 3, like flight 2 was better, getting 4 of the 5 correct.

So, so far I’m at 66% (10/15). I’m happy with that for now!

So, depending on which way you want to look at things, I’m either at a perfect 100%, or a disastrous 0% with these damned predictions!

Will we finally get some racing today!? I sure hope so, though I’m not predicting it!

So if we do manage to see some, here are my picks (as always in bold):

Flight 7

• BMW ORACLE Racing    -    Areva Challenge
• Luna Rossa Challenge    -    +39 Challenge
• United Internet Team Germany    -    Emirates Team New Zealand
• Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team    -    China Team
• Desafío Español 2007    -    Team Shosholoza

Flight 8

• Victory Challenge    -    Areva Challenge
• BMW ORACLE Racing    -    +39 Challenge
• Desafío Español 2007    -    United Internet Team Germany
• Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team    -    Team Shosholoza
• China Team    -    Emirates Team New Zealand

No big head-to-heads today, but there could be some close run matches. Team Shosholoza will be looking to get a solid start and make an impact, particularly in their first match of the day against the locals.

Lets see if today we actually get some racing! After all the build-up, the first two days of the event being windless with all the matches cancelled has left me with a sense of anti-climax!

So, on to my predictions (in bold) for the day:

Flight 5

• China Team - Team Shosholoza
• Emirates Team New Zealand - Desafío Español 2007
• Victory Challenge - United Internet Team Germany
• Luna Rossa Challenge - BMW ORACLE Racing
• +39 Challenge - Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team

Flight 6

• China Team - Desafío Español 2007
• Team Shosholoza - Emirates Team New Zealand
• Areva Challenge - Luna Rossa Challenge
• United Internet Team Germany - Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team
• +39 Challenge - Victory Challenge

Today there are some interesting pairings, with my pick being Emirates vs Desafío, and Luna Rossa vs BMW Oracle. This is quite a start for the four teams I expect to make the semi-finals. I won’t be too unhappy to see the local boys get a win against the Kiwis, whilst for the Italians and Ellison’s team alike, a good start and a win against direct rivals gets their campaign off on the right foot and will settle a lot of nerves.