Day One – but no wind

Day One of the 2022 J/70 World Championship dawned bright and beautiful, but with no wind evident, and none in the forecast neither.

At the competitors’ meeting the race committee discussed the wind. Forecast for some building later in the day. Start would be delayed.

And then the start was delayed again, and again, and again, and finally the day was abandoned. There is just nothing that can be done when you have no wind.

So now what to do with the day? Well, you can walk around Monaco, see the sights, stop for a coffee, see some more sights, stop again for coffee, etc. And this is what I did 🙂

My meandering took me to the Monte Carlo waterfront East of the hill with the Hotel de Paris and the Casino, where there is new construction to build a whole series of ugly Bauhaus -style buildings on caissons in the water. I can’t describe how horrible this looks, and how it destroys the whole feeling of the town.

The artist rendering here is incredibly optimistic – the truth is far worse. But it is still under construction so who knows, maybe it will turn out better than it looks now. It feels like the whole vibe was sacrificed to increase the amount of real estate for sale.

After this I walked back along the waterfront to the Fairmont, which is right on the water, thinking to have another coffee stop. But it turns out to be hideous too; another big chunk of concrete with no architectural interest at all. I walked in – there is a Nobu there, among other things – but the interior was equally as bad as the exterior.

I couldn’t bring myself to stay so I walked back to the Hotel de Paris. And so it goes … a lost day of racing and a lazy afternoon …