Well, first of all, it was fucking fantastic to see some sailboat racing on TV! The boats are really beautiful, in an F-1 car kind of beautiful: not exactly majestic, but very purposeful. As they say, form follows function.

The good: I thought the overall coverage by OLN was far from what it could have been, but also far from as bad as it could have been. The coverage of the TDC/GBR race was actually quite good, if you allow for the endless commercials (which caused them to miss the first rounding) and the interruptions of the canned fluff, er, team pieces. I thought Ed Baird was superb. For once we have an American commentator who knows what he is talking about and communicates it very effectively. I thought his voice, inflection and pace were excellent. And did I mention that he knows what he is talking about? Adios Jobson! The only bummer will be if we have to listen to Isler's mumbly droning after they get booted. More Baird would not hurt this broadcast at all.

The bad: Jesus Christ, could Chris Law and Dawn Riley be any stiffer? It's almost uncomfortable to watch, and does signify just how low on the totem pole sailing is in terms of acceptable "talking heads". Thankfully, host Bill Patrick was fairly harmless and certainly compared to the overstated Jim "Gun Smoke Blue" Kelly, almost a breath of fresh air. And why do we have to be focused on just one race? They didn't even give us the results of the other two races that were going on. This could easily give us less of the "feature" race and more of the other two, and by all means, have the ability to shift to a better race if the "feature" race is a blow out, which is sure to happen. At the very least, give us the mark rounding differentials and final results of the other races.

I don't know (and doubt, with their limited budget) if OLN has the ability to improve things much, but I think I speak for a lot of us that are glad to see the AC on TV: Good, but you can do better.