Maybe I'm cynical, but Ellison caught on to the fact that the average TV viewer doesn't have a sufficiently long attention span to handle a race lasting much more than 20 minutes, and that the possibility of nasty collisions & capsizes can sell.
I didn't think I would like it, but I did. Overall, much of the coverage was repetitive, and kind of silly, but the technology used in the actual coverage of the races was really amazing.
I agree with Sailman's "Crazy Larry's Nautical NASCAR" description, and wonder about its relevancy to the...