Cardinal Points - Richard Donkin on Sailing

2012-01-08T11:11:00.002Z

Congratulations to the crew of Maxi Trimaran Banque Populaire V, skippered by Loick Peyron (left), who have just achieved a new record for a non-stop round the world voyage of 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes and 53 seconds, wiping two days and 18 hours off the previous record.

I was going to write that they had "comfortably" achieved the record but comfort is not a word one should associate with round the world sailing, particularly when the yacht has been engaged in what equates to a 29,000 mile sprint at an average speed of 26.51 knots.

I'd been following their progress on British helmsman and trimmer Brian Thompson's blog. Usually in long-distance sailing you have time as a follower to ease in to the stories from the voyage, but this was undertaken at such break-neck speed it seems to have been only yesterday since they were embarking.

So Brian (pictured right) has another world record to add to his growing collection which is now well in to the 20s. Thousands turned out in France to recognise the feat. In the UK media it earned barely a mention.

Williams and GAC Pindar win third title

2011-11-28T10:59:00.001Z

Congratulations to Ian Williams, the new ISAF Match Racing World Champion. Ian celebrated his third world title in style yesterday, winning the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia. The previous title holder Ben Ainslie has been missing from circuit this year, concentrating on Olympic qualification.

Ian's win means he now joins Russell Coutts, Chris Dickson, Peter Gilmour and Ed Baird as skippers who have won the title at least three times. His Team GAC Pindar crew of Bill Hardesty, Mal Parker, Gerry Mitchell and Matt Cassidy have added strength to this year's campaign, achieving wins in two previous regattas and leaving the team in a strong position going in to the last round.

His nearest contender, Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing, said small mistakes had cost him races. In the first two races of the quarter final, the Italian team picked up penalties in the pre-race manoeuvres that proved costly, falling two races behind until he pulled one back in the third. Only six points separated the teams and had Bruni beaten the Pindar team in the quarter finals he would have won the championships. But Williams took an early lead in the fourth race to win and put the title beyond Bruni's reach.

Final World Championship Standings
1 Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar – 144pts
2 Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing – 112pts
3 Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team – 106.2pts
4 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) The Wave Muscat – 105.8pts
5 Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing – 102.8pts
6 Jesper Radich (DEN) Adrian Lee & Partners – 99.2pts
7 Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team – 90pts
8 Phil Robertson (NZL) Team China powered by WAKA Racing – 74.4pts
9 Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team – 74pts
10 Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team – 72.6pts

Here comes the sun

2011-08-16T16:24:00.003+01:00

Who needs win when we have the sun? The solar powered catamaran, Turanor, is on the last leg of its round-the-world voyage.

Five men in a boat

2011-05-10T10:49:00.012+01:00

She’s called Sea Flower and she looks like yachts used to look when yachts had character, not the white-plastic-hulled caravans that languish in the pontooned berths of modern marinas.

She’s not a perfect yacht and never will be. As each item is crossed off the “to do” list of jobs, another seems to emerge, demanding the renewed attention of her owner, my old colleague Victor Mallet.

Victor has changed over the years. He’s not quite as phlegmatic as he used to be. But none of us are as we enter our fifties. He seems to have dealt with those concerns and worries that accumulate as we age by depositing them within the confines of his Taiwanese-built Tayana 37 that is fully equipped to service every niggle and irritant known to man, and a few more besides.

He caresses her woodwork and worries about the varnish in the heat of a Mediterranean summer. He worries about the security of mooring lines, the bend in the mast, the strength of her shrouds, the chafing on the sheets, the reliability of sea-cocks, the gas feed, the foul air valves, the engine filters, the water pumps, the caulking and the strength of the fixings on the boom that doesn’t have a vang. It really ought to have a vang, he says.

You would think that all of these worries would be a drain on his constitution, yet he seems to take strength in his yacht’s unremitting demands, as if there is something soothing about surrogating the wider anxieties of domestic and professional life to the off-the-shelf alternatives acquired in the purchase and restoration of an old boat.

Sea Flower doesn’t have to be my worry but I and three others volunteered to share Victor’s burden for a few days in sailing her from a haven on Spain’s Mediterranean coast just south of Valencia to Minorca. I wanted to exorcise the memory of an earlier voyage to Minorca more than 30 years ago in a steel-hulled yacht called the Arco that had been welded together by a former fireman from Huddersfield whose navigational limitations would be exposed a few months later when he was wrecked on the Cape Verde islands.

We found a body in the sea on that crossing and left it where it was floating. It troubled me at the time but it's in the past now. You'd find a lot more bodies in parts of the Med today and that is something for all of us to think on. The rich cruise their super yachts while those who have nothing in Africa, risk everything for a new life in the West.

This voyage would be different and, indeed, that’s how it turned out. The sea had been like a pond on that first occasion, but not this time. The wind got up to about 25 knots at its worst - not particularly troubling – but the sea was quite big, stewing over a heavier blow to the north. The combination of this heavy swell and a confused sea state was enough to revive a sea-sickness I hoped I had put behind me.The 40-hour crossing was not my finest moment at sea. After regaling my crew mates, Shawn Donnan, Jeremy Grant and Brian Douglas with stories of surviving the southern ocean, I retreated to my bunk a broken man, retching at regular intervals and pondering in the more lucid moments just what it is I like about sailing.

One of the crew cruelly held on to my jacket as I would happily have slipped under the rail and ended the misery of it all. I hadn't been sea sick for a few years and had forgotten how bad you can feel. Of course the pictures here show the usual island paradise image of sailing. But it really isn't like that at all.Sailing, it seems to me, is one per cent how it looks in the pictures, 19 per cent problem solving, 80 per cent worrying about leaks, widgets, breakages etc, and 100 per cent work. But in a world where in the workplace at least, the defences are rarely lowered, life on a yacht exposes every facet of a character. There's no better way of getting to know people.

But when that sea gets up I dream of a different cabin. Yes, there's nothing more cosy than a hut.

The future is multi-hull, says Spithill

2010-12-14T19:47:00.003Z

James Spithill, The America's Cup winning skipper, says that multihull sailing is the future of sail racing at the highest level.

In a robust presentation at the annual World Yacht Racing conference in Estoril, Portugal, he argued that multi-hull racing was a more exciting spectacle for competitors and spectators with more overtaking opportunities, more demanding boats, more interest from young aspirants, and more interest from potential sponsors and media.

Spithill has a point, however unpalatable it may be for the thousands of sailors who happily race mono-hulls week-in, week-out. But it was nevertheless hard to take after the debacle that characterised the lead up to the 33rd America's cup in February.

"Blazers and polo shirts belong to history," he said. "Today's racing will see athletes pushed to the limits of physical exhaustion."

He called for a radical shake-up of race rules throughout the sport to end the confusing practice of protest hearings that can overturn results on the water. "Sailors and fans of sailing should never have to come off the water and see the results changed. If there is one thing I hate seeing on a result sheet it's the words 'provisional' or 'subject to protest.'"

He promised that the bad old days of the America's Cup with off-the-water squabbles fought out in the courts, were over in new reforms. The reforms, he said, would ensure continuity and sustainability of the event through an independent dispute resolution procedure, a "youth America's Cup" to prepare new talent and better media coverage through on board cameras and microphones. "The future is multi-hull," he said.

Team Concise

2010-08-06T14:13:00.013+01:00

I always find Cowes week too overwhelming to enjoy it as an occasion but the week is the sum of its parts and much as I may prefer to avoid the crowds it's the kind of event that simply can't be ignored.So yesterday I joined the Red Funnel scrum - amazing how many you can get on that boat - to cross over to the Isle of Wight and spend the afternoon in the Extreme 40 stand with the Pindar GAC and Sail Oman teams. Andrew Pindar, who has been supporting sailing for years as a sponsor, arranged for me to join Pete Goss for a short sail on Team Concise.

Pete is sailing this new Class 40 yacht in the Route de Rhum in October. It's a great class, restoring some of the Corinthian spirit in to sailing with competition yachts that cost a fraction to campaign compared with their Open 60 big sisters.

But they are still pretty sophisticated with water ballast controls and a swinging bowsprit that can be operated in the same way that you would "pole back" or "pole forward" your spinnaker on a conventional yacht.

They have a fixed keel and no carbon in the hull to save on costs. But they're strong boats and amazingly stable. There's no wheel so you might try spotting the helm in the picture above (he's second from the left).It was good to catch up with the Extreme 40 event that seems to go from strength to strength, running its own show independent of the regatta. The Pindar GAC yacht is a new arrival in the event with Nick Moloney at the helm, and seemed to be doing well. Not all the yachts escaped the competition unscathed, however.

Closer to the Royal Yacht Squadron was the 1851 tent. This America's Cup-style competition seems to have re-ignited interest in what commercially has become damaged goods in spite of its great history.

Hopefully with the kind of commitment shown by Sir Keith Mills and Team Origin and Larry Ellison's apparent willingness to rebuild the event, we might see a full revival of the cup. With Ben Ainslie showing this week he can be a match for the Americans, a British-based team might even win it. Just to whet our appetites the trophy was on show between two beefy security guards.

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2010-04-29T12:22:00.001+01:00

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A quiet day in Valencia

2010-02-08T15:11:00.005Z

I know that I am one of a number of sailing writers who have given the latest America's Cup a wide birth. If two competing squillionnaires and their giant state-of-the-art catamarans want to contest ownership of the oldest trophy in international sport in relative privacy off the coast of Valencia, that's fine. But they should not assume much interest from the rest of the world.

The lack of event-sponsor interest from business might suggest that the contestants are reviving the Corinthian spirit. Far from it. Corinthianism is founded on sportsmanship and there is nothing sporting in this latest cup challenge. As far as I can gauge from all the court hearings preceding the contest, the event has become a money-no-object willy-waving exercise between a couple of over-inflated egos that have become detached from the inclusiveness that characterises most great sporting events.

The professional teams who are sailing these yachts don't care about the personal vendettas much. They're happy to be paid to go head-to-head in a best of three encounter that, if nothing else, really does involve a battle of cutting-edge sailing technologies. In that respect it would not at all surprise me to see a bit of carnage out there. Some extreme forces are involved and it wouldn't take much to tip one of these machines at full throttle.

So it was with a sense of reluctant curiosity that I took a peak at what was happening in the first race. After all it has taken millions of dollars, umpteen court appearances and whole series of "on,off" announcements to arrive at this day. And what an anticlimax it proved to be as the first day of racing was postponed due to a lack of wind. I suppose we should have seen that coming.

Minoprio new world match racing champion

2009-12-07T11:16:00.003Z

Match racing has a new world champion. New Zealander Adam Minoprio and his crew had already secured the title when they defeated Ben Ainslie's yacht in the final of the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia yesterday.

Minoprio and his ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing crew of Tom Powrie, David Swete, Nick Blackman and Dan McLean defeated a TeamOrigin boat that included triple Olympic gold medalist Ainslie on helm and double Olympic gold, Ian Percy.

Ian Williams, world champion for the previous two years, was forced to concede his title in the round robin stage when he was unable to progress to the later stages.

Ainslie - absent for part of the season - plans to do the full tour next year in order to give him a better chance of securing the world title in what has become a high quality event attracting much of the world's best match racing talent.

Monsoon Cup Results
1st Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing Team
2nd Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin
3rd Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
4th Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/ALL4ONE
5th Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
6th Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing
7th Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
8th Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team

Final tour Standings
1. Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 138 Points
2. Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 97 Points
3. Ben Ainslie, (GBR) Team Origin 95 Points
4. Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR 93 Points
5. Mathieu Richard (FRA), French Match Racing Team Racing 79 Points
6. Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar 75 Points
7. Sebastien Col, (FRA) French Match Racing Team 55 Points
8. Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 48 Points

Sailing in to trouble

2009-12-01T10:01:00.003Z

Should we be alarmed that one of Andrew Pindar's two Volvo 60 boats has been seized by the Iranian authorities who say it strayed in to their territorial waters? The incident is a worry for British diplomats as it has occurred at a time of heightened international sensitivity after Iran announced an escalation of its nuclear enrichment programme.

The boat, The Kingdom of Bahrain, in Pindar's distinctive turquoise livery, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is only just over a week since Pindar launched its Sail Bahrain venture designed to promote sail racing in Bahrain in a programme similar to one developed in Oman.

The incident casts a shadow over several initiatives designed to raise the profile of sailing in the Middle East. It will re-enforce the view of Larry Ellison who had opposed a decision by America's Cup holder Alinghi to stage its forthcoming defence in the emirate, Ras al-Khaimah.

Ellison, who heads the BMW Oracle challenge for the 33rd America's Cup, had argued that the venue was too close to a dangerous region, a point that was upheld by a court in the US.

The UK's priority and that of Pindar, now, is to secure the release of the crew. If the boat, as seems the case, had been experiencing problems with its propeller, there would appear to be little justification for impounding either the boat or the crew. But as British diplomats know from bitter experience, nothing is straightforward when dealing with Iran.

Neither is this simply an issue between Britain and Iran. The fact that the boat is officially representing the Kingdom of Bahrain could complicate negotiations or possibly smooth them, depending on the standing of Bahraini/Iranian relations.

Piracy statistics, 2009

2009-10-29T12:57:00.006Z

I wonder how many of us have dreamed of retiring and sailing off in to the sunset? Paul and Rachel Chandler were living that dream until their yacht, Lynn Rival, was overrun by Somali pirates. Today they yacht has been recovered by the Royal Navy but the couple continue to be held hostage.

Piracy has become a real threat for adventurous sailors who seek to take their yachts beyond the shores of Europe and North America. The Chandlers were boarded 60 miles in to a voyage from the Seychelles to the Amirante islands.

Here are some sobering statistics on piracy in 2009, compiled by former Royal Navy and Superyacht Captain, Paul Cook, speaking recently at the Superyacht Design Symposium in New York.

Total Incidents = 374

Vessels Boarded = 81

Vessels Hijacked = 39

Vessels Held in Somalia = 7

Hostages = 66

Injured = 19

Killed = 6

Missing = 8

Paul Larsen and SailRocket crash

2009-10-08T14:49:00.007+01:00

Is this the end of the line for Paul Larsen and SailRocket's attempt to beat the world sailing speed record?

He reached a speed of 53 kts this week before the boat flipped during the run off the Namibian coast. He lost the race to top 50 kts over 500 metres when Simon McKeon broke the barrier with an average speed of 50.07 kts in March. Since then the record has fallen to the French trimaran l'Hydroptere. Larsen believes he can still go faster but is this the boat to do it? We should know soon enough as his team try to get it repaired.

Yacht of the year 2009

2009-10-06T14:13:00.005+01:00

Sometimes something happens in life where you know a bit of the history - the hard work,the ups and the downs and the heartache mixed with the triumphs. So I knew what it meant to Philippe Falle today when the Royal Ocean Racing Club named Puma Logic as its yacht of the year.

"It's the happiest day of my life," he declared on his Facebook page. I have known Philippe for many years since we sailed together on 3Com in the 1996/97 BT Global Challenge race. I last sailed with him on Puma Logic in the Round Britain and Island Race in 2006. What a ball-breaker that was.

He's a top class sailor and really should be helming or skippering at a much higher level. But he ploughs his own furrow and for the last few years he has concentrated on a sail training business, Sailing Logic, based in Southampton, taking novice sailors and building them in to winning crews. This year Puma Logic came second in IRC overall in the RORC championship.

Recognition means everything in sailing so it's great that RORC has given the boat this thoroughly deserved accolade. I hope it's a sign of bigger things to come.

Fastnet or bust on Hugo Boss

2009-08-08T15:22:00.000+01:00

Today I've been getting ready for my first Fastnet Race, sailing with Alex Thomson and a few other big name sailors (such as Andrew Cape with 10 Fastnets to his name) on Hugo Boss which has to be the coolest looking of all the Open 60s.

If today's stints on the pedestal grinder are anything to go by this is going to be an extreme exercise and fitness regime, well for me anyway. I suppose I needed to get trim for the holidays but there must be easier ways.

They've shown me around the interior and it's very des res with a rather fetching orange bucket for our ablutions. The form is that you take a biodegradable bag from one of the pockets, squat in the leeward cuddy, then throw the contents over the side. So now you know. The format for urination is to go over the back in light winds but to pee in the aptly named cockpit if its getting a bit rough.

Thomson is never afraid to experiment (with technology) and this year the on board novelty is live streaming film reports from the boat to his website here.

Graham Bell, former British Olympic skier turned TV presenter is broadcasting from the boat. The race starts on Sunday 9th August, when the onboard cameras will go live 10 minutes before the start at 11.50 am.

Live feeds will then follow every three hours after the start enabling Hugo Boss to share all the action live from the race course with people online (except, I hope, any cuddy action).

“We have always been able to send back video and do live interviews, but we thought it would be great to go to the next level and test the boundaries of what is possible. I hope it will give people a real insight into life on board and share the race with us,” says Thomson, Hugo Boss skipper.

The live feeds lasting at least 3 minutes will be able to be watched every 3 hours, starting at 1500 on Sunday 9th, then at 1800, 2100, 0000, 0300, 0600, 0900 and back to 1200 until the race finishes.

The cameras will also be turned on as we round the Fastnet Rock off the Southern tip of Ireland.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Fastnet disaster of 1979 when 15 racers died and a number of others in following boats.

The 300-strong fleet will feature a range of yachts from the smallest at just 30 foot to the largest at 100 foot. Hugo Boss will be lining up in the IMOCA Open 60 class against some of the best offshore sailors in the world, including Sébastien Josse, Sam Davies and Mike Sanderson.

The full IMOCA Open 60 entry list (yachts and skippers) for the Rolex Fastnet 2009 is:

Akena Vérandas - Arnaud Boissières

Team Pindar - Mike Sanderson

Artemis Ocean Racing II - Samantha Davies

Artemis Ocean Racing The Profit Hunter - Simon Clay

Aviva - Dee Caffari

BT - Sébastien Josse

Hugo Boss - Alex Thomson

Ocean of Smiles - Christophe Bullens

Pakea Bizkaia - Unai Basurko

Safran - Marc Guillemot

Toe in the Water - Steve White

Women break another record

2009-06-22T23:54:00.000+01:00

While I and 16,000 others were sailing around the Isle of Wight on Saturday, Dee Caffari and an all women crew, including her Vendee Globe rival, Sam Davies, were breaking the record for sailing around Britain and Ireland.

Good luck to anyone who wants to try and better them. Been there, never want to go again.

Ellen MacArthur, a real dame

2009-06-22T14:21:00.001+01:00

This year’s Isle of Wight Round the Island Race was a great day on the water. I had the chance to go sailing on practice day with Ben Ainslie helming Team Origin’s Extreme 40 Catamaran, then on the race itself with Dame Ellen MacArthur and Sebastien Josse. I’ll settle for that.

Ainslie had only helmed the cat for the first time on Friday morning before our afternoon sail but he had the Volvo Ocean race winning skipper Mike Sanderson ready to de-power the main if a tip looked on the cards.

I had expected the race to be a bit of a procession but there were some great duals around the back of the island off Bembridge when the wind died. The after-deck on ICAP Leopard is clearly not used to anyone trying to take its wind and Josse had a lot of fun doing just that.

Most of the day was spent chewing the fat on deck with Ellen MacArthur. I’d been looking forward to meeting her for some time but hadn’t wanted a set piece interview with PRs looking over our shoulders - more of a natural conversation if that could be possible. And that’s exactly what happened. I think I had read somewhere that she is quiet and reserved. Not true. But she’s her own woman all right.

Lots of people are rightly suspicious of journalists and those in the public eye need to be particularly guarded. I didn’t want to pry in to her private life but at no stage did she put up any shutters. If you’ve read her autobiography you will know as much about her as you could know about anyone.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to be pointed out and photographed everywhere you go – wearing I should think. It’s probably why she stays on the Isle of Wight most of the time. But at least people are friendly there. There’s none of the lampooning today that happened after she rose to fame during the 2001 Vendee Globe.

I’m not the star struck type and I would run a mile from celebrity interviews but MacArthur has real star quality – beauty too. It’s the eyes and the inner woman that sort of glows. It’s difficult to explain without seeming smitten.

When I mentioned to two friends that I would be meeting her, they said: “Oh yes, she was the fastest on Top Gear wasn’t she.” No mention of her extensive sailing achievements. How quickly people forget. Or maybe they were surprised, as people are continually surprised, by the depth of her determination.

There are a lot of egos out there in sailing and some people are very good at disguising them in the presence of journalists. But I think that what you see is what you get and what you get in Ellen MacArthur is a team player who makes time for people where she can – given the demands on her time. She came a long way very quickly in her teens and dealing with so much fame so soon must have been tough. Now she handles it like a professional. It’s the only way.

At the end of the day she didn’t rush off but came up to the bar tent for a beer. She wasn’t bossy as I’d feared she might be. But she was enthusiastic, infectiously so, about her passions – sailing, sustainability (a big one) and her charity. She seems to draw inspiration from the strengths of the children she meets who are suffering from cancer or leukaemia, and they must do likewise from her own achievements.

I suspect we’re going to hear a lot from her soon in the sustainability movement. She speaks about the environment and the ecology with a campaigning fervour and she knows her stuff. It’s what we need.

I liked her a lot. Top woman, Dame Ellen MacArthur.

NB. Top picture: Seb Josse with Ellen MacArthur.
Lower picture: Working our rocks off on the rail of the BT Open 60. Picture credit: onEdition.

Hungry wolves close on Rio

2009-03-25T12:12:00.000Z

Spare a thought for the Volvo boats, denied their big Rio party by a lack of wind in the past few days. Snacks have run out on some of the boats but Ken Read, skipper of PUMA, seems to have the right attitude.

I love his comment about the chocolate bars his wife smuggled aboard that "I break in half and throw on deck to the wolves from time to time." Having met the crew I know just what he means.

Carrot still flying

2009-03-16T17:12:00.000Z

It is possible that you have heard of Oliver Hicks. I believe he has had a little bit of media coverage but not a lot. Yet he deserves to be better known because just now he is undertaking a venture so tough that I think he must be a little bit potty.

Hicks has embarked on a single-handed row, some 18,000 miles around Antarctica via the Southern Ocean. He didn't invite much publicity because he was afraid that state authorities might impound his boat, so risky is the venture. He couldn't get permission to embark from New Zealand so left from Tasmania instead. This time he didn't seek permission and none was given. He just set off.

That was in January and today he is 55 days in to a voyage that he believes will take him between 18 and 22 months, including a winter break in South Georgia, before he continues around the globe to his starting point.

He is blogging most days so you can follow his progress here at Virgin Global Row. His boat is called the "Flying Carrot." For practice he rowed the Atlantic two or three years ago so he knows what it's about. Good luck to him. He's going to need it.

Vendee ends, Volvo closes on Cape Horn

2009-03-16T11:01:00.000Z

The Vendee Globe ended for another four years yesterday when Norbert Sedlacek finished in 11th place after 126 days at sea. A lot of thinking should go in to the keel designs for the next race. While the existing keels work well in maintaining boat speed, too many are being wrecked or damaged in collisions, putting skippers in jeopardy. I don't know the answer but I would have thought it would be possible to design a weighted, canting keel that is flared on its forward edge in order to deflect a collision.

In the meantime the leaders of the Volvo Ocean race are closing in on Cape Horn in heavy weather, experiencing true southern ocean conditions.

Spirit arrives

2009-03-09T11:40:00.000Z

Pete Goss and his Spirit of Mystery have arrived in Melbourne. It's less than a year since I interviewed him before the boat went in to the water. It was a big undertaking and I wondered aloud about the risks, particularly since he was taking his 14-year-old son, Eliot, as part of the crew.

I wouldn't say that Goss thinks about risk the whole time but it's a big part of his thinking, except that he views it as problem solving, not as an impediment. If you're going to need to tackle heavy seas, then you build a seaworthy boat.

He knew there was a chance of a big wave turning the boat over at some stage during the voyage and included extra ballast to give it better righting ability. He believes now that the boat may have gone over 160 deg during the knock down on March 3. Coicidentally it was around this date - a couple of days later - that the original Mystery experienced its worst storm.

I think a lot of people would have thought long and hard about exposing their child to a risk of this nature. I know that Goss did. But every time he thought about it, the potential benefits outweighed the potential risks.

Eliot will have seen and experienced things that are rarely part of a teenager's upbringing. He will have learned about the useful things in life, about making judgements, respecting the elements, and the special relationships that are formed when sharing adversity. Living without risk is impossible and living a life avoiding risk is not living at all.

Ultimately, the boat was tested to the full and proved its seaworthiness. The original voyage was remarkable for its time. Goss has shown that such a voyage is remarkable in our time too. Well done to Pete, Eliot, Andy and Mark and all those who worked to make this voyage happen. There are easier, quicker ways to get to Australia but, as Goss and his crew understand, life's all about the journey isn't it?

Spirit of Mystery back on course for Melbourne

2009-03-07T23:35:00.001Z

Difficulties in staging a helicopter evacuation of injured crewman Mark Maidment have forced Spirit of Mystery to divert in to Portland where Maidment is receiving treatment to his leg. The three remaining crew are now carrying on their voyage, says skipper, Pete Goss.

Evacuation after Goss knock -over

2009-03-05T10:54:00.000Z

The Spirit of Mystery, knocked over by a freak wave late on Tuesday (GMT),is carrying on its voyage to Melbourne after the evacuation of crew member Mark Maidment who sustained a broken leg.

The crew had just got through two and a half days of stormy weather before the wave struck, knocking the boat on to its side and partially flooding the cabin. The wave washed away the life-raft and dinghy.

Said Goss: "We had just come out of a storm that had lasted for two and a half days and given us a right old pasting when we were hit by a freak wave. There was no warning, just a huge wall of water that smashed into the boat rolling her more than 90 degrees onto her side. There was carnage below with water everywhere, which got into the communications systems. The boat was fantastic though and I wouldn't have wanted to be in any other. She just shook herself off and came upright; but when she did, Mark's leg was broken."

Goss is continuing the voyage which has just a few hundred miles to go. The boat is due to arrive on the 9th or 10th of March.

The things we take for granted

2009-02-26T11:09:00.000Z

Brian Thompson has been writing on the Vendee Globe web site about the ordinary things in life that suddenly take on new meaning after a prolonged absence.

He says: "I am relishing the freedom to walk, to run, to go outside the 60 foot radius I was limited to. I am loving being with the family, and to see people and talk to them face to face rather than over a scratchy phone line. I am absolutely amazed to go to a shop and see a cornucopia of goodies that I was not able to have for so long; fresh milk - just go and pick it up, vegetables - take what I wish, chocolate - which flavour would I like? I am relishing listening to the radio, picking up a newspaper, going to the cinema, walking on grass, seeing the first daffodils appear. It’s all new and fresh to me.

"Do I miss those last few weeks and days of the race, being stressed and covered in hydraulic oil, coaxing Bahrain Team Pindar to the finish line to keep 5th place? Not really.

"Do I miss the Southern Ocean, the warm trade winds, the purity of the sea? Yes, I have been immensely privileged to see it once again, to live in that world for so long, to really understand we do live on a blue planet, wrapped by the sea. I am sure I will be back, hopefully in another Vendée, perhaps on another speed record attempt, and then one day cruising and showing the kids this wonderful world that we are entrusted with. I will never forget the finish of course, it was the most amazing experience, the most perfect morning to bring the circle to a close."

His comments brought back memories for me of a 43-day voyage across the southern ocean to New Zealand. His experience must have been far more acute because of the length of time at sea, the constant fight to stay in the race and the denial of normal social contact. As he points out, radio messages are not quite the same as meeting people in the flesh.

Such experiences lend a sharpness and clarity to the things that otherwise we might easily take for granted. This sharpness fades very quickly and so do the bad memories, which probably explains why so many sailors need to go back.

I remember that I adjusted so comfortably to life on board our boat that I was reluctant to step foot ashore. I enjoyed the cheering welcome but found the whole thing overwhelming. Most of my crew mates had family members to greet them but mine were on the other side of the world and I missed them.

The other thing I recall was a tremendous feeling of wellness. I had never felt better in my life. Whether it was because my body had been purged of alcohol and additives, or whether it was because the muscles had become toned by the constant movement, I have no idea.

Brian is a very grounded individual, a professional racing sailor who has spent hundreds of days at sea, so it's interesting to see that he too notices the differences of daily life. I wish these people who complain because of the colour of their steak or an inconvenient set of roadworks, would take time out occasionally to count their blessings. Sometimes when we go without for some time, it can helps us appreciate the things that really matter in life.

The stuff of dreams

2009-02-26T09:49:00.000Z

Whichever way you look at it the Vendee Globe is the craziest* of races. You would never gather together a bunch of fell runners and point them at Mount Everest with a prize for first back to base camp (at least I hope not).

But the Vendee is the ocean equivalent of mountaineering extremes undertaken as a race. It's an open book of human endeavour with drama on every page. This year's Vendee has delivered everything - from early retirements, technical failures, rescues at sea and high speed challenges that collapsed in mid-charge.

A few reputations have suffered but most have been enhanced and few more so than that of Steve White who sails in to Les Sables d'Olonne today in eighth place. White deserves a big welcome because here is someone who put everything on the line for his dream. Updating the blog, I'm reading that thousands have turned out to cheer him in.

He is not a wealthy man and has spent almost everything he has on this race. A sponsorship deal fell through and within a few days of the start he was unsure of a race sponsor until a private individual came forward with the funds. I don't who this individual is but I applaud their willingness to show faith in White's indomitable spirit.

Before this race, White was barely known in UK yacht racing. He didn't have a background in sailing but came to it in his twenties. There's no pedigree of dinghy competition or Olympic-class sailing in his past. But there is enormous ambition and the the kind of grit you see only too rarely these days.

Today he will sail in to Les Sables, having achieved a feat that defeated 19 of his heavily-sponsored fellow starters. It's the kind of story book finish you normally find in film scripts. I cannot imagine that he entertained hopes of a top 10 finish at the start but here he is, a round-the-world sailor at the end of the world's most gruelling single-handed yacht race.

Whatever else he does in life, that's one hell of an achievement to remember in long winter nights with the grandkids. But somehow I don't think White will rest on his laurels. His boat is called Toe in the Water but it's full immersion from here on in. There may be bigger things ahead for him, but, however long he lives, I cannot think there will be a sweeter moment than coming home today. I hope he enjoys it as much as those who have followed the race have been inspired by his example.

As he sailed in today, someone in the crowd had a placard that said it all: "Thanks Steve, you have made us dream."

* With the possible exception of the Volvo Ocean Race, arguably crazier still.

First yachts home inside two days on Caribbean 600

2009-02-25T15:07:00.000Z

Congratulations to the Royal Ocean Racing Club for having the guts to extend its stable of races at a difficult time for the yachting industry.

First over the line of the first Caribbean 600 was the trimaran, Guadeloupe Region, in 40 hours, 11 minutes, while ICAP Leopard, the 100ft British super maxi, was the first single-hulled yacht to finish, completing the course in 44 hours, 5 minutes, the 12th race record achieved by the yacht since its launch in 2007.

Mike Slade, owner of ICAP Leopard and Chief Executive of Helical Bar PLC, gave the race his stamp of approval: "The Caribbean 600 has been a really challenging race which deserves to be a classic, as it fits well with the Fastnet and the Sydney Hobart," he said.

The race, over a roughly triangular course, starts and finishes off Antigua’s English Harbour. RORC Caribbean 600 hopes become an annual fixture in the Caribbean racing season.

Brian Thompson, Earthwatch ambassador

2009-02-18T20:55:00.000Z

One thing I forgot to mention in my Vendee Globe reports was the work undertaken by Brian Thompson as he was racing, making water temperature readings and reporting wildlife sightings for Earthwatch.

Earthwatch is an environmental charity that deals with science at the coal face where it's needed. Earthwatch scientists are not sitting in university offices but spend much of their time out in the field where hundreds of Earthwatch volunteers join them every year helping to collect data.

Who are Earthwatch volunteers? Well they are just like me and you, people who want to go out and do something. Some get the chance to go on expeditions through supporting employers such as HSBC. Others sign up for an Earthwatch study as an alternative to lazing on a beach during their vacation. Yes, you're paying to work and what a fantastic experience it is, learning about our world through dusty boots, not the sterile pages of a book.

I have written about their expeditions here and here. Don't confuse this with eco-tourism. At Earthwatch you're handling crunchy, robust science, discovering the stuff that makes a difference to our world.

As an Earthwatch ambassador, Thompson carried the charity's logo on his mast, a sponsorship slot donated by Bahrain Team Pindar. It's great that sporting competitors are joining forces with charities in this way. I'm a trustee of the charity and would be very happy to tell you more if you need it but don't expect an unbiased opinion. Earthwatch will change your view of the world. It changed mine.

Cookson boat yard out of work

2009-02-18T09:04:00.000Z

I was chatting with a yacht broker in London the other day who was telling me about boatyards in Germany and Sweden going in to moth balls due to a worldwide recession in the yacht market.

Now Auckland-based Cookson Boats - one of the world's leading racing boat builders - is doing the same once its current projects are finished. Faced with a blank order book it will have to lay off its 62-strong workforce.

Cookson was responsible for Team New Zealand's America's Cup boats, Steve Fossett's Playstation (renamed Cheyenne) and Larry Ellison's Sayonara, winner of four world maxi championships.

Sales for big yachts have dried up as potential buyers hang back due to the economic downturn in their respective businesses. The project-based nature of yacht-building, however, means that yards will be able to gear themselves up again when economies recover. The danger for existing yards is that some skilled builders will have moved on to other things, possibly starting their own small businesses. But that's the , nature of evolution or what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction."

French 1-2-3 as British trio back in port

2009-02-17T08:05:00.000Z

The Vendee Globe rankings board now shows six finishers as Sam Davies, Marc Guillemot, Brian Thompson and Dee Caffari all came in to Les Sables d'Olonne in the past three days.

Davies was first among the group but had to relinquish third place to Guillemot, who pipped her by less than two hours with the time in hand he was granted for helping out Yann Elies earlier in the race. It was a great finish by both sailors but Guillemot deserved his place after pushing his boat without a keel during the run in.

Thompson was relieved to nurse Bahrain Team Pindar over the line after struggling with keel problems for the last part of the race. He looked, from photographs, as if he would be ready to sleep for a week.

Andrew Pindar, the Scarborough businessman who sponsors the team, had invited me to join him at the finish. But I had just gone for a couple of days to the River Tweed in the hope of a spring salmon. It was a shame as it would have been good to see the boats in.

It's easy to forget that this west to east solo circumnavigation was a first for all four finishers. For Dee Caffari, it means that she has the unique distinction of being the first woman to solo the world in both directions.

If that first solo circumnavigation brought Caffari recognition as an adventurer, her Vendee performance must establish her as a genuine racer, capable of handling and looking after a state-of-the-art racing yacht in the most extreme conditions. It's easy to forget that, in spite of her excellent sponsorship package with Aviva, she is relatively new to full-on ocean racing with less experience than Davies who learned her skills with the elite French squad.

Thompson too will have learned much, not least about the future potential of Bahrain Team Pindar for future solo round-the-world voyages. Is this powerful yacht too much of a beast for a single skipper? Certainly Davies was able to show it the way home on her much older, if well proven, yacht, Roxy (formerly two-times Vendee winner PRB).

When the last boats have finished the British sailors should get together and discuss their future prospects. For all the British achievements, it is French skippers who occupy the first three places and that will be no surprise to anyone in ocean racing.

If other nations, including the UK, are to groom sailors good enough to challenge the best French skippers in the Vendee, they will need to emulate the French squad system and engage in the Figaro series. While talented individuals such as Mike Golding and Ellen MacArthur have come close in the past, no other nation has succeeded yet in breaking the French strangle-hold on this event. It's no coincidence that Britain's highest placed skipper in this race, Sam Davies, came through the French system.

Drunk in charge of the fleet

2009-02-12T11:10:00.000Z

The UK is to introduce drink-driving laws for sailors, similar to those applied to motorists. Howard Pridding of the British Marine Federation says: "We don't believe that there is a widespread problem of alcohol afloat." Of course, there are exceptions. Who could forget the immortal Tommy Woodroffe?

Vendee fight to the finish

2009-02-09T22:31:00.000Z

While first and second places are settled in the Vendee Globe after Armel Le Cleac'h finished at the weekend, yet another dramatic change of fortune means that Sam Davies, the highest British entrant has a chance of snatching third place.

Her nearest rival Marc Guillemot on Safran has lost his keel, a similar failure to that suffered a week earlier by Roland Jourdain. With less than 1,000 miles to the finish, Guillemot is sailing on under three reefs. Although he is now in fourth place on the water he has a cushion of more than two days in redress after standing by while the injured Yann Elies was rescued in December.

That may be just enough to stay ahead of Davies on Roxy, but he cannot afford to take too many risks while Davies may be emboldened by the chance to effectively leapfrog two places as third place is to be shared jointly with Vincent Riou, already granted his position through redress. She and her shore crew will have been doing their sums. At present she is expected to finish later this week. Now she has everything to sail for.

Fifth place would be a marvellous result for Davies in a boat that is much older than the newer designs of those sailed by Brian Thompson and Dee Caffari in her wake. Third place would be remarkable. Meanwhile Caffari knows she has a fighting chance of overtaking Thompson's Bahrain Team Pindar which is unable to sail under full power due to problems with the hydraulic rams that operate its canting keel.

There is every chance now the only two women to have entered the race will be the highest placed British competitors - another shot in the arm for women's sailing in the UK.

So near and yet.....

2009-02-02T14:25:00.000Z

Facing 50 mph winds ahead of him tomorrow, Roland Jourdain has decided to withdraw from the Vendee Globe with just 1,200 miles to go. The risk of capsize is too great, sailing his boat Veolia Environnement without its keel bulb. He is putting in to Sao Miguel in the Azores this afternoon

"Once the decision was taken, that was it," he said. "I would have found it more difficult to come to this decision if the forecasts had indicated light winds, but it’s the exact opposite. For 3rd February, they are talking about 50-knot winds with a ten metre swell. I’ve been lucky to have come this far without capsizing, particularly in yesterday’s storm, so I’m not going to push my luck. I have gambled enough. It’s no use now and it would be unreasonable to continue."

It's the right decision. He and his boat will survive to fight another day.

Desjoyeaux wins Vendee in record time

2009-02-01T15:34:00.000Z

Michel Desjoyeaux crossed the finish line at 15:11 GMT today to win the Vendee Globe for the second time in a record time of 84 days (three days ahead of the previous record), averaging 13.2 kts over 28,000 miles, and accompanied in to port by a small armada of well wishers.

Looking at the boat on a live stream from Les Sables des L'Onnes, it's a big, broad triangular saucer with a mast. It's easy to forget when following this race that the participants are undertaking something which for part of my lifetime had never been done before.

It's easy to be blase about this, comparing boat speeds all the time, but the whole undertaking - keeping awake, dealing with solitude, undertaking repairs, trimming and all the rest is such a monumental task that anyone who gets to the end can feel justifiably proud of their achievement. To do all this at racing speeds while boat after boat crashes out of the race, is something else. This race is still one of the world's great adventures.

It must be an odd moment for all of those still at sea, particularly Raphael Dinelli and Norbert Sedlacek who are just about to round Cape Horn. They must be feeling a long way from home. But each of them will have their home-comings to savour and there can be nothing better.

Winners and losers

2009-01-31T15:34:00.000Z

As Michel Desjoyeaux begins to savour his Vendee triumph it might be an idea to assess the fortunes of other competitors as a race like this has many winners and losers when you look at its impact on their careers. For some it will not be evident yet since some changes will only occur in time. But here is my assessment of twenty of them. The rest either retired early or simply didn't register enough as racers:

Michel Desjoyeaux: an obvious winner, his reputation is enhanced and his future can only be defined by his remaining ambition.

Sam Davies: Another big winner, came to public attention in the UK, and popular with race followers, should help her get a a state of the art boat if she chooses to do the race next time.

Jonny Malbon: Failed to enhance his reputation and will leave a question mark for sponsors. Will Artemis stay with him in the long term? On the other hand he has built a good relationship with his sponsor who knows that his boat probably needed longer to establish itself.

Brian Thompson: Looked after his boat and enhanced his reputation as a reliable sailor. But does he have the potential to challenge the fastest French skippers in the long run?

Alex Thompson: Can he shake off the reputation of a "crash and burn" sailor? He needs to finish more often. While he came second in the Barcelona round the world race he was sailing with the immensely experienced Andrew Cape.

Mike Golding: Has nothing left to prove as a round the world sailor, but does he believe that? He knows what it is to be beaten by a Frenchman. Has it happened once too often? Sponsorship assured so he can go on as long as he feels.

Roland Jourdain: his already excellent reputation has not suffered, could easily have won and would have liked to have pushed Desjoyeaux harder in the later stages had he not suffered keel damage. Should be back next time.

Jean Le Cam: Will want to return one more time because he knows he can win it.

Yann Elies: Still young, will have learned a lot, will almost certainly want to come back. His retirement was cruel bad luck.

Marc Guillemot: A fine seaman, again with nothing to prove. A top five spot looks to be his. Again he may question whether he wants to come back in four years' time.

Loick Peyron: Knows he can win this race, still young enough, so I'm sure he'll be up for another go. Sponsors know they will get value for money.

Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty: Has youth on his side but needs to improve to keep his sponsors happy (and possibly to keep his sponsors).

Vincent Riou: A past winner, would have chased Desjoyeaux all the way to the line had he not damaged his boat going to the aid of Jean Le Cam. His reputation is secure and he will be back.

Steve White: Steve who? Some may have asked this before the race but not any more. He gambled everything on this race, scrambling together his entry at the last minute. If White set out on a wing and prayer that prayer must surely be answered with some solid sponsorship in future. He deserves it.

Dee Caffari: In spite of her previous circumnavigation she was one the least experienced skippers in the race at this level of competition but has done herself a lot of good, preserving her boat so far (if not her mainsail). Her sponsors should be happy.

Dominique Wavre: He was 53 when he set out. A fine sailor who acquitted himself well before his retirement, but will he want to return in four years time?

Sebastien Josse: Probably pushed too hard but will have learned much and should be back with confident sponsors. Could win this race next time.

Armel Le Cléac´h: This is a great result for Le Cleac'h who may yet secure second place in his first Vendee. In showing he can race fast and preserve his boat, he has to be a hot tip for the future.

Raphael Dinelli: Simply doesn't have the pace to win. Is it enough any more just to take part?

Bernard Stamm: Did enough to confirm his reputation as a solid performer. Will probably want and should get the sponsorship for another crack at the race.

Jonah talk

2009-01-30T14:43:00.001Z

Surely nothing can stop Michel Desjoyeaux now from claiming victory in the Vendee Globe? Well one or two things could - a collision with a whale or some other debris could take off his keel and capsize the boat although no heavy winds are forecast for his final few miles. Certainly it would need something of such catastrophic proportions to stop him now, and that looks unlikely.

Sadly it is second placed Roland Jourdain, now more than a thousand miles behind him, who is sailing gingerly just now after losing the bulb of his keel due, he thinks, to damage caused near the tip of South America when he collided with a sea mammal, most probably a whale.

If the weather forecasts look kind enough for Cape Finisterre and Biscay I think he will probably try to complete his circumnavigation. By the time he reaches the Azores he will have had time to assess the handling qualities of the boat in order to make a judgement about its seaworthiness.

As Desjoyeaux sails in to a rapturous French welcome on Sunday, spare a thought for Raphael Dinelli and Norbert Sedlacek who will be setting their boats to round Cape Horn. One of Dinelli's biggest worries just now is whether his supplies will last another three weeks. By the time they sale in to port, the crowds will have thinned somewhat but I'm sure the people of Les Sables d'Olonne will be there to greet them. The French respect their sailors.

Between first and last, however, we might see some jostling for position around fifth and sixth place. Jourdain will almost certainly lose his second place to Armel Le Cleac'h, so that would put him joint third with the already placed Vincent Rou (as a result of redress given earlier in the race).

More than a thousand miles behind Le Cleac'h is Sam Davies. She is about 300 miles ahead of Marc Guillemot but needs a much bigger margin (about 600 miles) since he was given redress for going to the aid of Yann Elies.

About 350 miles behind Davies is Brian Thompson on the powerful Bahrain Team Pindar. And only 90 miles behind Thompson is Dee Caffari. The question is whether Thompson will pull all the stops out to try and overhaul Davies.

He would dearly love to be the first Briton back but the challenge may be beyond him. There were some high expectations placed on his Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed boat before the race. It's the most powerful boat in the fleet with the biggest righting moment. But it is by no means nimble to manouevre for a loan yachtsman.

I was speaking with Juan K yesterday and he pointed out that the boat had been designed for crewed sailing. Many of Brian's posts have outlined difficulties he has experienced with various parts of the boat, such as the longitudinals, the alternator and the the big D3 sail that was damaged beyond repair at sea.

"All these repairs mean that I cannot be quite as on top of the sailing as I would like and I consequently end up reacting to events rather than anticipating them and taking best advantage of them," he said in one of his posts.

On the other hand, as Juan K pointed out, all the skippers have faced technical problems. Dee Caffari looked to be losing her deteriorating mainsail at one stage until drastic repairs contained the problem for a while (although the damage has revealed itself once more).

I've written a feature on the race for Saturday's Financial Times - a bit of a round up plus some discussion about boat design, given the high rates of equipment failure during the race.

For now, though, the race is still on. Thompson's big boat could be set up well for his 3,000 mile run to the finish. Could it be time to make a charge?

Jourdain heads for safe haven

2009-01-29T20:03:00.000Z

As if the Vendee Globe hadn't squeezed the last ounce of drama from this race, there was yet more today when Roland Jourdain discovered that the bulb on the end of Veolia Environnement's keel fin had disappeared.

The last keel bulb to go was that on Jean Le Cam's boat, VM Matériaux, just before it capsized in the Southern Ocean. Jourdain has made his boat as stable as possible and is sailing steadily towards the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores where he will be able to take stock. But with 1,700 miles of ocean still to cross, including the treacherous Bay of Biscay, the risk of capsize may be considered too great.

To retire at this late stage would be heartbreaking but no-one would want to experience the ordeal that befell Le Cam. Jourdain did not know at first just how bad the keel damage was but his shore team later confirmed that the bulb had gone. The support team will be doing their sums, working out whether sufficient ballast can be arranged to keep the boat stable enough at low speeds under limited sail. But it's going to be a tough call.

At least the Azores are on the route. Armel Le Cléach, just a day and a half behind him, will be gaining all the time. But it is not just second place that is looking fragile for Jourdain. He could be facing retirement. As it is he will need to nurse his boat through four days of delicate sailing. One good thing is that the Azores high pressure system should keep him away from heavy wind. The system that sailors normally do their utmost top avoid should allow him to maintain a margin of safety for the time being. But after that? We shall have to wait and see.

Boomless PUMA takes second place in Qingdao

2009-01-29T12:55:00.000Z

This is one of the first pictures taken of PUMA coming in to Qingdao today after recapturing second place, behind Telefonica Blue in the fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, while sailing without a boom. The sail profile looks fine for reaching conditions, rigged to a pulley system to allow adjustments. It shows what can be done, even when a boom snaps.

Picture courtesy of the PUMA racing team.

All smoke and mirrors

2009-01-28T16:42:00.000Z

I understand that there are still people out there who believe the Volvo Ocean race is actually happening. As I think this clip demonstrates, it is becoming obvious that the whole event is being staged, probably in the same studio they used for the moon landings.

The macho-looking guys in their sailing suits are actors with a few Polish building workers brought on to the set as extras. Most of the water is dispensed from a bucket off camera and the spectacular-looking waves are achieved, using hydraulic ramps in the giant tank they used for Master and Commander. Add in a few sound effects and a wind machine, a bit of careful editing and you get this marvelously authentic-looking storm. Nice try Volvo, but you can't fool everyone.

Head case

2009-01-28T16:07:00.000Z

Puma and Ericsson 4 are still neck and neck for the second and third places in the Volvo fourth leg while Telefonica Blue's leading margin has been all but maintained, now 29 miles with just over 150 miles to go to Qingdao.

The last few miles have been an obstacle course for the boats as fishing nets are stretched sporadically for miles and sometimes cannot be avoided.

Flogging mainsails create a hazard in light winds, so crews deal with the problem by fastening the boom with a "preventer" rope. This clip of Anders Dahlsjo on Ericsson 3 shows what the preventer is trying to prevent and what it can no longer prevent if it snaps, as this did. Not for the squeamish.

Fighting to the finish in Volvo Qingdao leg

2009-01-28T10:19:00.000Z

With just over 200 miles - less than a day's fast sailing - left ahead of them as the surviving boats from the gruelling fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race close on Qingdao, the leaders have set up an exciting finish.

Every boat in the fleet has suffered damage in battering winds that have forced three retirements from the leg. Ericsson 4 is sailing without instruments while PUMA is sailing without a boom. Both boats are within a mile or two of each other and have been gaining on the race leader Telefonica Blue, still more than 30 miles ahead of them.

In fact as I have been writing this short note, PUMA has moved up in to second place! If Telefonica loses its wind before the finish as skipper Bouwe Bekking fears, anything could happen. As it stands Telefonica looks as if it will secure the win but if PUMA can hold on to its second place Ken Read and his crew can feel proud of their come back from such a serious breakage.

For full details, click on the Volvo link to the right where there are also links to the Vendee Globe race and Pete Goss's Cornish lugger voyage to Australia. There's plenty happening at sea just now.

PUMA boom breaks on camera

2009-01-26T02:31:00.000Z

What happens when your boom breaks in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Like several other boats, PUMA was forced to take shelter, after breaking her boom while leading the leg in 50 mph winds west of Luzon. One boat, Telefonica Black, has retired from the leg with a cracked hull but PUMA is sailing on. Telefonica Blue, meanwhile, has taken the lead.

Full report here.

Puma leads by a whisker

2009-01-19T11:40:00.000Z

Puma is leading by a whisker in what is expected to be a cold, harsh, fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race to Qingdao in China. I sailed with the Puma crew a few days ago in Singapore and their preparation looked superb. Team Origin member Rob Greenhalgh has fitted in well, trimming the main. Imagine a concentrated 2,500 mile sprint with no let up the whole way.

"It’s ridiculous," says Ken Read, Puma's skipper. "Every moment of the day at sea is spent trying to make the boat run fast. We get three hour position reports so the intensity is maintained the whole time. It’s like a day race that just happens to last weeks at a time."

Can there be any more surprises left?

2009-01-18T20:22:00.001Z

Michel Desjoyeaux has pulled out a 500 miles lead on Roland Jourdain in the Vendee Globe. Even with the compression that will probably occur in the doldrums, that looks like too much to overhaul now as long as Desjoyeaux's boat holds together.

The winds became so heavy just north of Cape Horn last week that Brian Thompson made the prudent decision to head for shelter, making no headway for some time in order to stay south of the worst of the weather.

He and those around him - Dee Caffari and Arnaud Boissières - know they can't catch the leaders. Sam Davies in Roxy is also probably out of reach of Thompson now as she is nearly a thousand miles ahead. While the positions may change among the three behind Roxy its is difficult to see the running order change much nearer the front unless Davies can overcome the redress given to Marc Guillemot on Safran.

Steve White has stuck to his task on Toe in The Water and looks set to be rewarded with a top 10 finish. Getting round the world will be accomplishment enough for the relatively inexperienced and underfunded Englishman.

With less than 3,500 miles to go Desjoyeaux must be beginning to scent victory but those behind can't afford to slacken off. Everyone in the fleet will remember what happened to Mike Golding when in the lead. Equipment failure can happen at any time.

Thirty boats set out on this adventure. Twelve remain.

A sailing year in pictures

2009-01-18T16:29:00.000Z

A sailing year in pictures. Enjoy the feast!

Podium result for Riou

2009-01-13T11:33:00.001Z

To anyone who is not a sailor and to some who are, the news that a podium position in the Vendee Globe is already decided with 5,000 miles still to go for the leaders may come as a surprise, but such are the workings of competition juries.

The award of joint third place to Vincent Riou and PRB is some small consolation for the damage his boat received when rescuing Jean le Cam not far from Cape Horn. The award is the outcome of the jury's decision to grant Riou redress as a result of the incident.

It is important that redress is accepted in such circumstances since Riou put himself and his boat at considerable risk in going to the aid of his fellow yachtsman. Le Cam and every other competitor would have done the same.

I wonder what the organisers would have done had the incident involved the two leading boats? The same? Quite possibly but it would have produced an unsatisfactory outcome for a race to be decided so far from the finish.

The remaining competitors, however, seem determined that the finish will be decided on the water. With a lead of nearly 300 miles over his nearest rival, Michel Desjoyeaux appears to be sailing well within himself. It is not impossible that he could be caught by either Roland Jourdain or Armel le Cleac'h but the best hopes of the following boats must rest with the leader suffering some kind of damage.

As we have seen with so many retirements and breakages in this race, that remains a possibility. I cannot think of a boat that has had a glitch free race although Sam Davies on Roxy seems to have protected her boat well. Brian Thompson and Roland Jourdain have both been undertaking running structural repairs while Dee Caffari has been struggling to patch a delaminating mainsail. Marc Guillemot too, must find an opportunity to free a sticking mainsail.

The redress for Riou puts Sam Davies effectively in sixth place just now as the redress awarded to Guillemot for going to the aid of Yann Elies would put him ahead of her, although not by a substantial distance. Davies is a thousand miles behind le Cleac'h so he would take some catching at this stage of the race.

Of course, with such a distance to go, it is still very possible that the positions could change yet. It would only take a fierce Biscay storm at the wrong time to put the kibosh on all those hard earned miles. But all the boats left in the race now are looking for a finish.

Whale threat

2009-01-09T23:55:00.000Z

The news that Roland Jourdain has hit a whale will do nothing to boost the confidence of his fellow round-the-world sailors. I'm thinking not only of the remaining Vendee Globe skippers but also the crews of the Volvo Ocean Race Open 70s.

I was chatting with Ken Read, skipper, of Puma Ocean racing in Singapore yesterday. He said that a collision with a whale is the one thing that keeps sailors awake in their bunks on these high speed ocean-racing events.

The threat of submerged objects, including whales, is a recurring topic of conversation among the Volvo crews when they're on shore between stages.

It's not good news for the whales either. Some must be getting badly injured or even killed in these collisions.

The organising bodies of sail racing need to address this issue for the sake of competitors and also for the sake of marine conservation.

The possible use of echo sounders, ultra sound detection and other devices should all be on the table for discussion. Something needs to happen as a matter of urgency.

Another dismasting

2009-01-08T00:13:00.000Z

Vincent Riou's yacht, PRB, has lost its mast not far from cape Horn. Riou and Jean Le Cam, the fellow competitor he rescued are safe. This means the fleet has shrunk once more and Sam Davies moves in to 4th place (although still technically 5th when Marc Guillemot's redress is taken in to account). Michel Desjoyeaux, meanwhile has extended his lead. It looks a two boat race now between Desjoyeaux and Roland Jourdain. But can they go all the way? Expect more twists and turns in this extraordinary race.

Capsize

2009-01-07T09:59:00.000Z

There cannot be a skipper in what remains of the Vendee Glove fleet today, who has not been contemplating the nightmare of a southern ocean capsize, after the rescue of Jean Le Cam yesterday from his upturned boat, VM Materieaux.

I'm only just catching up on the drama as I was in the air all yesterday, heading for Singapore. While the good news is that Le Cam is safe after hours of uncertainty, it is far from clear just now whether Vincent Riou, whose, boat Brit Air, was damaged in the rescue, will be able to continue the race.

It looks like Le Cam escaped from a hatch in the bottom of his upturned boat before he was winched out of the water by Riou on PRB. There were shades of the Tony Bullimore rescue in the 1997 race.

A tanker was soon on the scene and stood by Le Cam's upturned yacht but the crew could not reach it. Riou, however,was able to get to the scene in time and make contact with his fellow Frenchaman.

There will need to be an investigation of the incident but it is clear that the capsize happened after the loss of the bulb on the canting keel. When the race is over the organisers will need to take a long hard look at their rules on keel designs because too many keel failures are endangering skippers in top flight ocean racing.

Mike Golding lost his keel near the end of the last Vendee Globe race and keel damage put paid to Dominique Wavre's race in December.

Two areas need to be examined: the hinge design that allows the keel to cant and the bulb design. Unlike traditional flared keels that can ride over a collision, the torpedo shaped bulbs can sustain juddering impacts if they hit a submerged obstacle such as a chunk of ice, a container or a whale. If these designs are increasing risk it might be time to revert to something with proven seaworthiness. There has to be a balance between speed and safety and skippers should not be sailing on tenterhooks in fear of a capsize that could happen without warning. Keel design is raising increasing concerns and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Catching up with the Volvo Ocean Race

2009-01-04T15:09:00.000Z

I'm flying to Singapore in a couple of days and wish I was looking forward to it. I hate long flights. I'm travelling there to catch up with Volvo Ocean Race and to sail with the crew of Puma.

In the last race I sailed on ABN AMRO during the in-port race out of Portsmouth. Spectators are allowed to stand at the stern of the boat. This time, as it's a training run, I'm hoping I will get more of a chance to look around the boat.

But I'm under no illusion that there will be a chance to pull on any ropes beyond a turn on the grinder, perhaps. It takes some time to get used to the workings of a powerful boat like this. While principles are the same as those on a cruising yacht it's like stepping out of your saloon car and in to a racing car. There's a steering wheel and pedals but don't expect anything else to be familiar.

I went on the grinder to hoist the mainsail on Bahrain Team Pindar and even with two of us it took forever. I think about that when I read about the Vendee skippers putting reefs in their mainsails. Still, it keeps them fit.

I'm disappointed to be missing the London Boat Show at ExCel although I always find these shows overwhelming. The best bit about them is the opportunity to meet people. Looking at the dates (9th to the 18th of January) I might get to the end of it. One good thing about the Singapore trip is that it will give me new leads and new ideas. I just wish it wasn't so far away.

Rounding the Horn

2009-01-04T14:30:00.001Z

As I'm writing this Michel Desjoyeaux is just about to start rounding Cape Horn in the Vendee Globe. It's a big day for the race because this is a place that stirs the heart of every sailor.

It brings back memories for me. Twelve years ago I rounded the horn from east to west in the BT Global Challenge race. Some might regard it as an ignominious rounding as I was in my bunk when we crossed the exact co-ordinate. It was during the night, there was nothing to see and frankly there seemed not much worth celebrating with thousands of miles of ocean to cross before New Zealand.

The Vendee sailors might view it somewhat differently. Some are heading there for the first time and all of them will be boosted psychologically once they have "turned the corner". One who will not make it is Jonny Malbon who has retired on Artemis because of his deteriorating mainsail. It's a tough end to what has not been a great race for Malbon.

Desjoyeaux, of course, could find his way round with his eyes closed. His boat seems to be sailing well and he doesn't report any problems. But then he prepared well. A lot can go wrong still and something probably will, but I wouldn't bet against him at this stage, unless I happened to be Roland Jourdain who knows the lead is well within his grasp. The more he can pressure Desjoyeaux, the more chance there is of forcing an error. But such pressure works both ways, as those following understand. Anything can happen in this last long haul northwards.

Looking after Chuck

2009-01-02T14:15:00.000Z

As the leading Vendee Globe skippers bear down on Cape Horn in preparation for the long haul northwards, Jean-Pierre Dick on Paprec-Virbac II is heading northwards in to calmer waters after damage to his second rudder ended his race.

Just half of the starting boats are left in the race and many of those have problems that are hampering their progress. I understand the mainsails on Jonny Malbon and Dee Caffari's yachts are deteriorating rapidly while Steve White has been struggling to repair his gooseneck - the bit that attaches the boom to the mast.

In spite of electrical problems, Brian Thompson on Bahrain Team Pindar has improved his speed over the past two or three days but Sam Davies has found herself in a pocket of slack winds. Davies has been one of the stars of this race, always upbeat and cheerful, always looking at the glass-half full. I'm sure that this attitude, added to her strong engineering skills, is helping her maintain consistency in a race where the "hares" keep falling by the wayside.

A few weeks ago there were a dozen yachts in front of her. Now there are five, all top class French racers. I don't expect Sam to have the raw speed to overtake them, but if she can keep her boat together, and one or two of the others in front have problems, a podium finish is not beyond her.

In her latest log she writes: "I used to be a "bow chick" (numero 1) on fully crewed boats, so I'm used to the tough jobs up forward whilst speeding along. But the difference now is that there is no back-up behind me, and I am no longer trusting a skilled helmsman not to "wipeout", "chinese gybe" or "stuff it" on each wave. I just have Chuck (the nickname she gives to her autopilot).

She also includes some new year's resolutions:

* Sail around the world.
* Take a photo of Cape Horn.
* Stop eating the Nutella out of the pot with my fingers.
* Do not fall asleep with the motor on charging the batteries.
* Sponge the bilges every day.
* Brush hair more than once a week.
* Eat more BUT eat less chocolate.
* Cancel the above resolution as it is impossible.
* Catch up some miles on the leaders.
* Be nice to Chuck, the autopilot.
* Take no risks.

The first one and last one are probably the most important reminders for anyone seeking to complete a round-the-world race. It's not bad advice for the potential winners, either.

During this mid section of the race I have been impressed with the way that Roland Jourdain has hung on to Michel Desjoyeaux. Every time that Desjoyeaux has looked like breaking away Jourdain has raised his game so that he remains just a few hours behind.

Stop press: sailors racing

2008-12-31T11:36:00.000Z

The British newspaper coverage of the Vendee Globe race has been scant. Apart from a few news stories of the "British heroine goes to the aid of stricken sailor" type when Sam Davies - who happens to be young, pretty and female - diverted her course to help Yann Elies, there have been very few reports.

I was surprised, therefore, to find a report on page 11 of today's Daily Telegraph, focusing on Jonny Malbon in 13th place just 4,000 miles behind the leader. Then I noticed it said "special report" with "in association with Artemis, The Profit Hunter" at the end of the report. I don't like this kind of advertorial as it is dressed up to look like a piece of journalism when in fact the journalist is simply pandering to the wishes of an advertiser.

Then again, I would question the news values of British sports editors who have studiously ignored one of the most dramatic of sporting events. Why does this happen? I would list several reasons:

Xenophobia: there is a parochialism about sports coverage that, in this case, is magnified since the best round-the-world sailors are almost all French.

Obsession with football: this really does not need any other explanation.

Perceived elitism: it's not easy to be a round-the-world sailor and most of them rely on corporate sponsors. That most have not enjoyed privileged backgrounds but have worked for years to get the chance to enter this event does not seem to influence such judgements.

Technical terms: sailing is a highly technical sport and sailing writers must try to balance a desire for specialist information and terminology with non-specialist interest among a wider audience.

A world apart: This kind of sailing is so different, so extreme, that it's difficult to make comparisons. Even accomplished dinghy sailors cannot imagine the conditions in which this race is undertaken unless they have experienced them at first hand.

Sport versus adventure: Some editors and, indeed, some sailors, still equate round-the-world sailing with the "big adventure," that getting around the world is an achievement in itself - as it is. But the Vendee is a full on race. Mike Golding has sailed round the world many times. But his ambition is to win the Vendee and for that he must sail at speeds that will test any weakness in a boat. Some top "round-the-cans" sailors sometimes disparage endurance sailors, possibly out of envy. It is a different sport with different demands and they should understand this.

It's not just editors who must reflect on their prejudices. Sponsors must examine their expectations too. I am sure that none of them issue orders to the sailors to simply get around the course, although I am sure that many are dispirited when a boat fails early in a race.

Having said that, I have no doubt that Aviva, the sponsors of Dee Caffari, and Caffari herself, are looking for a finish in the Vendee. Caffari is a fine, gutsy and likeable endurance sailor, but she is not among the fastest female sailors in the world. Her status relies on having done something first. She was the first woman to sail around the world single-handedly against the winds and currents. If she finishes this race she will be the first to have done so in both directions.

Other sailors shouldn't begrudge her sponsorship but learn from the way she has positioned herself. Caffari delivers value to her sponsors, not by winning, but by sticking to her game. She is still learning and two round-the-world events must command the respect of her fellow sailors.

Sam Davies demands even more respect. Caffari has the advantage of one of the new generation of faster boats but Davies is 800 miles ahead of her in an older boat. In turn, Caffari is 1,600 miles ahead of Jonny Malbon, also skippering a well-sponsored modern boat.

None of this is to disparage the achievements of Malbon and Caffari, but simply to put their performance in context with that of superior sailing at the head of the fleet. It seems unfair to write this from the comfort of an armchair when all these sailors are giving their all in the world's most inhospitable seas. But those who sail understand these differences and so should a wider audience.

It is more difficult to pass judgement on Brian Thompson who has been struggling with a high performing new boat, spending more time below deck than above in the past two weeks, making repairs. But unless he can improve on the speeds he set earlier in the race, he too will know that he must work harder to get in to the French-dominated big league.

Thompson does not strike me as a "crash and burn" competitor but as a dogged performer intent on going the whole way. He is one of the fleet's nice guys and I want him to do well. But I'd like to see him going a bit faster. How can I say this of a family man when sailing is so dangerous? The danger is a given. Thompson and the rest of them are there because they choose to be there. They put themselves on the line and know that their times and performances will be scrutinised in the data logs. They look at the same data and they know, in their hearts, that Michel Desjoyeaux is a sailor apart. Even Golding said that and Golding can match the Frenchman for speed.

The British might look at the elite French squad system that prepares its sailors for these events but you can't say that of Steve White, the British skipper of Toe in the Water, who got to the start line in an underfunded yacht through the generosity of a handful of supporters. Yet today he is 800 miles ahead of Artemis.

For this reason the Telegraph should have refused the Artemis shilling and told the story as it should be told. Its readers deserve better and so does sailing.

Mystery tortoise and the Vendee hares

2008-12-30T17:06:00.000Z

It's been more than a week since my last note on the Vendee Globe and a lot has happened in the interim.

Looking at the rankings nothing seems to have changed as the distance between the leader, Michel Desjoyeaux, and second placed Roland Jourdain, is much the same.

But there is no longer Sebastienne Josse trying to stay in touch. A big knock down did for his boat, BT, and he was forced to retire. Derek Hatfield is another retiree after losing his top spreaders.

Brian Thompson has lost a lot of distance on the leaders after spending time making repairs to cracks in his fore peak, but his speeds seem to be climbing again.

Other skippers who have lost time with boat problems include Marc Guillemot and Jeane Pierre Dick. So many boats have been damaged or retired that Samantha Davies now finds herself in 7th place on Roxy.

The four Frenchmen between Davies and Jourdain must be hoping now that a mechanical failure among the two leaders might present them with some opportunity. I can't see either Desjoyeaux or Jourdain slowing their pace. The closeness of the two boats means that they can't let up and the harder they press, the more chance there is of a mechanical failure.

That seemed to be Josse's theory, however, and, even after reigning back a little, he was still caught by heavy weather. Desjoyeaux has sailed almost faultlessly so far and those behind must be asking asking themselves whether he can keep going. He seems to thrive on pressure, sailing fast but steadily.

It's good to see that the two women skippers are still in the race with a fleet almost halved from its starting strength due to retirements.

Meanwhile Pete Goss and his family crew on Spirit of Mystery made Cape Town safely on Christmas Day after experiencing their first seriously heavy seas. There will be many more like that on the leg to Australia.

Elies safe

2008-12-20T13:12:00.000Z

Yann Elies, the Vendee competitor, has been rescued today by the Australian navy. His boat Generali, has been abandoned, under a light sail. Like a toy yacht on a park lake it should sail on until a motor launch with Generali team members can meet it. The boat has a tracker so its position can be monitored.

So that's another one gone as Michel Desjoyeaux at the front of the fleet maintains his lead with Roland Jourdain staying close. The best that the rest can hope for now is that a mechanical failure or damage (by no means unlikely) hampers Desjoyeaux's progress. I don't think another sailor in the fleet has the ability to catch him and that is not to underestimate the others. It is simply that Desjoyeaux is so exceptional.

This means that 12 of the original fleet of 30 are now out of the race. With more than half of the race still to run it would not be surprising to be looking at a final retirement list of two thirds of the starters.

Another thing about Desjoyeaux is that he very rarely admits to any problems. All of these skippers have had mishaps of some kind and we hear of them regularly in their reports. But if anything is worrying the Frenchman, you wouldn't know it. He said today he been playing Sudoku to keep himself occupied!

Of the two women starters I think that Sam Davies is in with a shout of a top five spot. For Dee Caffari there is a strong incentive to finish as it would make her the first woman to have rounded the world in opposite directions.

Vendee rescue underway

2008-12-19T15:03:00.000Z

I was meeting up with old sailing friends yesterday at our 3Com starboard watch annual reunion, so missed the news that Yann Elies had broken his femur.

Marc Guillemot, who diverted course, has taken up station not far from Elies's yacht. Elies, meanwhile has managed to get some drink, a little food and some pain killers inside him and has been able to fashion makeshift bed and get some sleep. This is important because he must wait now for the arrival of the Australian frigate, HMAS Arunta, the rescue ship, which is due to reach them on Saturday afternoon.

Sam Davies on Roxy is also heading towards the scene. The yachts are there for moral support as much as anything. They will not try to rescue Elies. It's too dangerous for yachts to run alongside each other in pitching seas as their masts would most likely lock together.

The injury brings back memories of sailing in the southern ocean on 3Com when we had to rendezvous with another yacht, to pass over morphine for a badly injured crewman on Time and Tide. We passed the medication over on a line. In that case, both the yachts were fully crewed. In single-handed sailing there are fewer options.

But the good news for Elies is that a rescue is on its way and he is tucked up and reasonably warm. No-one should be in any doubt, however, of the seriousness of a bad injury in such an isolated place. Sam Davies herself blacked out briefly yesterday when she injured her arm. Fortunately she suffered no more than bad bruising.

Had Elies been left exposed or unconscious on the deck of his yacht he would have been in much bigger trouble. As it is, the rescue, so far, is going smoothly. It just takes time because of the distances involved.

Meanwhile Michel Desjoyeaux has been extending his lead with Roland Jourdain not far behind him, but these two have moved more than 100 miles ahead of third-placed Sebastien Josse. Jean-Pierre Dick has completed a rudder repair to Paprec-Virbac II and is heading south east to rejoin the fleet, having lost more than 600 miles since the breakage.

Guillemot says he will stay with Elies "as long as it takes." He says:
"The race was yesterday. Now we've moved on to something else. I had a similar experience a few years ago. I'm just trying to talk to him, to reassure him. The subject doesn't matter. He knows he can rely on me. It's more of a psychological help than a physical one, but that's important, because in general it's the head that looks after the rest of the body. That will help him, while he awaits the arrival of the rescue team."

To push, or not to push?

2008-12-16T15:48:00.000Z

It must be pretty miserable for Mike Golding and the other retirees stuck in the southern ocean more than a thousand miles from land. The little white triangles that represent the boats on the web-based tracker board look quite forlorn.

For Loick Peyron and Golding, sailing under jury rigs, the reality is that they will be unlikely to make landfall before Christmas. Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty is also making his way to his nearest port after retiring through a combination of problems.

I don't think Golding can blame himself for the dismasting. He's one of the most experienced sailors out there. The reality is that to give yourself a chance of getting ahead and staying ahead in this race, you have to push your boat, such is the fierceness of the competition.

But Golding says he wasn't pushing particularly hard when the squall hit, it was simply that his sails were set for a lighter wind and could not cope with the swift rush of wind that gave him no time to respond.

What he needed and what the winner will need, is some luck. But squalls are a part of racing, as are collisions with growlers (ice) and cetations. The skippers just have to cross their fingers and hope they're not going to draw the short straws.

This is not the first time that Golding has been forced out through damage to his boat. He twice had the lead in the 2004 Vendee, only to be forced out by halyard breakages.

Right now he'll be preoccupied with putting together a reasonable jury rig, but when he has time for reflection during the slow journey to Australia, I'm sure Mike will go over his decisions a thousand times, wondering if he should have set a more cautious sail pattern. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The dismastings of Peyron and Golding, both vastly experienced skippers, plus the damage to Jean-Pierre Dick's boat, should inject some caution in to the fleet. At the very least the front runners now should be doing some long, hard thinking. With at least 4,000 miles of southern ocean yet to cover, the canniest of them might think about reigning back a little. But human nature doesn't work like that when there's a boat gaining on you fast a few miles astern. There's a temptation, also, to try and get a jump on the leading pack.

But if they do continue to nudge the 20 kt mark in confused seas we shall yet see more retirements. So far, the damage has been to steering, keels, mast and riggings. The nagging fear is that sooner or later a breakage may prove life-threatening. It is an ever-present danger.

It will be interesting to watch Michel Desjoyeaux in the next week. We know, from his earlier performance in the race, he has the out-and-out speed to sail faster than any other competitor. But he knows that out-and-out speed carries a risk, particularly in heavy weather. The sensible approach might be to sprint in the best conditions and reign back conservatively when the heaviest depressions pass over. Sebastien Josse seems to playing the risks well. I note he had three reefs in his mainsail during the worst of the most recent storm.

Ultimately, the success of these skippers will be measured over 24,000 miles and they have yet to cover half that distance. Those trailing doggedly behind the leading pack should take heart. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Sam Davies in a top five position at the end of the race. Anyone who can manage that, from 30 starters, deserves to take a bow.

Golding is dismasted

2008-12-16T10:14:00.000Z

Got out of bed, brushed my teeth, got dressed, fired up the computer, clicked on to the Vendee positions and there was Michel Desjoyeaux at the front of the fleet. Where was Mike Golding?

He's floating around the southern ocean without a mast. He had grabbed the lead but it was short lived before his boat was hit by a 50 kt squall that took away his mast and sails.

This means that Golding is out of the the race and with his dismasting goes any hope of a British win. The nearest Brit now is Sam Davies in Roxy, nearly 900 miles behind the leader, in 10th position. She's performing exceptionally on Roxy but her older boat can't hope to match those of Desjoyeaux and Roland Jourdain for speed (although it may prove tougher in this race of attrition). The reality is that there are nine fast Frenchmen ahead of her.

I'm so saddened for Mike. But he can come home - and he still has a few sea miles to cover yet - with his head held high. He gave it everything and has nothing more to prove as one of the world's best long distance sallors.

Golding poised for Vendee lead

2008-12-15T16:22:00.000Z

It's not a question of "if" there will be another breakage in the Vendee Globe but "when" and "who" I said in this morning's blog. Well it turned out that it was just a few hours later that leader Jean-Pierre Dick's boat Paprec-Virbac 2 hit something that kicked up his starboard rudder.

He says that the connecting arm which joins the two rudders is broken and that the rudder stock is also damaged. Dick has been forced to slow his boat and is now sailing with only his port rudder down.

During the last position report he was sailing at nearly 12 kts an hour in heavy winds of between 35 and 40 kts, while second placed Mike Golding was screaming along at just under 20 kts.

Dick's misfortune is Golding's opportunity. Unless the Frenchman can effect a quick repair, he will be overtaken in a matter of hours and the leader board will be showing a British name for the first time in the race.

The downside for Golding is that he can't afford to slack off since Roland Jourdain and Michel Desjoyeaux are both breathing down his neck. In fact, I suspect he will be feeling slightly uncomfortable, leading, with so much French talent on his tail. But it's a great opportunity nevertheless. Golding has worked as hard as anyone to be in this position. I shall be keeping my fingers crossed for him. There's such a long way to go.

Wind and puff at the BBC

2008-12-15T11:58:00.000Z

If you, like me, tuned in to watch the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year event last night, you may have been disappointed but not surprised to hear little mention of sailing.

If you watch BBC and you want to know about sailing, it seems, you are told only about Ben Ainslie and no-one else. If Ainslie's fellow gold Olympic medalists were mentioned, I didn't hear it. There was no mention either of the Vendee Globe, the Volvo Ocean Race, or Ian William's second world title.

I have no complaints about Chris Hoy, a deserving winner, or the accolades reserved for the outstanding British cycling team, but there could have been some mention of the sailing team which brought home from China four of the 11 sailing gold medals awarded.

The whole event, I thought, was poor. Instead of showing us the outstanding performances in an outstanding year for British sport, the BBC gave full reign to the arty types and so we saw all kinds of presentational guff mixed with hokey poetry.

Great sporting moments, Like Usain Bolt's magnificent 100 metres run, don't need dressing up, but instead of seeing the run we had flash after flash of repetitive clips with fancy graphics and unusual camera angles. Instead of seeing the cyclists winning their events we joined them on a training run. Why?

Sport doesn't need to be jazzed up in this way. Leave that to corporate branding experts who need to make tins of beans look more alluring. There is purity in human excellence and the BBC should not forget that.

Heavy weather takes its toll

2008-12-15T11:32:00.000Z

Bernard Stamm's boat ran aground in heavy weather last night so his Vendee race is run. I expect he'll be keeping Dominique Wavre company for quite a while until technical help arrives. Someone saw the funny side.

The top five followers are just about holding on to Jean-Pierre Dick but they're having to sail fast to do so. Expect another breakage soon among the front runners. It's not a question of "if", but "when" and "who"?

Down the ranks, Sam Davies is still charging on Roxy, 90 miles ahead of Brian Thompson. Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty, on the other hand, has slowed right down. He was among those caught in the heaviest winds over the past two days, suffering a series of technical problems: autopilots, torn genoa and damaged mainsail halyard on Maisonneuve.

Over the past 48 hours, all of those at the rear of the fleet have suffered two big depressions with winds of 45 knots, gusting to 60 knots. That's a lot of wind.

It was noticeable that although Loick Peyron is under jury rig and out of the race (although he has not yet been posted as officially retired) he was making better progress in the last session than Steve White in Toe in the Water and has maintained consistently faster speeds than Pete Goss, slowly heading for Capetown in his Cornish Lugger.

Roxy rocking along

2008-12-14T13:42:00.000Z

Sam Davies must be cock-a-hoop that she has moved in to 11th position in the Vendee Globe, overtaking both Bernard Stamm, now in the Kerguelen Islands, and Brian Thompson.

Davies has a proven ocean racer in Roxy - a former Vendee-winning yacht - but its design has been overtaken by the newer, faster designs, including Bahrain Team Pinder. The Pindar yacht is powerful but it seems that Thompson has been finding some limitations in performance although it isn't clear from his reports what these may be.

Stamm has steering problems that have forced him to join Dominique Wavre in the Kerguelens. Thompson, meanwhile, seems to have lost out, opting for a route to the north of the Islands, the only boat to have done so, so far, although others following.

At the front of the fleet Jean-Pierre Dick has made the biggest break in the race so far, pulling more than 70 miles ahead of his nearest competitor, Mike Golding. Golding and the others must stay with Dick if they are to maintain their place in the same weather system. The boats are steadily becoming less packed than they were, as would be expected. It's extraordinary that they remained so tightly packed for so long.

Another one bites the dust

2008-12-12T20:21:00.000Z

Dominique Wavre is heading for the Kerguelen Islands after damaging his keel on Temenos II. He was back in the top 10 and pushing hard at the time.

The good news is that he is just just 150 miles from the Islands. The bad news is that the keel is swinging freely. If it were to fall off he would be struggling to keep the boat upright. It looks like his race is run.

Canting keels are a constant worry in this kind of racing. They have become a feature of modern design but there needs to be a continuing debate about their use, something I discussed here.

Meanwhile Steve White has had to retrace his course, frustratingly, as he missed an ice gate. Mike Golding finds some time for reflection, including a conclusion that Desjoyeaux is the man to beat. Loick Peyron might have been many people's favourite at the start after winning the Artemis Transat earlier in the year, but his challenge is over.

Golding moves in to second place

2008-12-12T11:33:00.000Z

While Mike Golding has moved in to second place in the Vendee Globe, his highest position so far in the race, he and the rest of the following pack have actually lost ground on the leader Jean-Pierre Dick who managed to pull 50 miles ahead in the past day.

Fifty miles remains a narrow margin and Golding's more southerly course may help him to pick up distance on the northerly boats that have had the best of the wind in the past day or two.

The tactics among the leaders appear to be those of staying with each other and covering any possible breaks. Michel Desjoyeaux, having charged to join the front runners, seems to be pacing himself for now, regaining his strength ahead of another push later on.

Golding has spoken of sticking close to the leaders ahead of a charge up the on the final stretch, a feat he performed outstandingly in the last Vendee, but I am sure he too he will be looking for a possible break.

Meanwhile Bernard Stamm draws ever nearer Brian Thompson. While Golding showed in the last race that distances of 700 miles on the leaders can be made up from this stage, I think that those behind Dominique Wavre in 11th place may be looking at best now for a position in the top 10.

If Samantha Davies can do that in Roxy, she will have excelled herself as the boat is slower than many of her rivals. In the same way, Steve White, is still punching away after losing a sail on his under funded boat. Jonny Malbon, trailing White on the well-funded Artemis, seems to be having a pretty miserable time, having twisted his ankle to add to his woes. He is one of a number of skippers to have passed icebergs. I wouldn't have expected them so far north.

Imagine trying to grab an hour's sleep when your boat is speeding along at 20 knots at night with the possibility of an iceberg out in front. Yes, the boats have radar but some of these bergs are quite low in the water and you can't watch the radar constantly.

By the way, I cannot understand why the mainstream press is ignoring this race. Perhaps it's because the Vendee's own web site covers it so well. But I'm sure if more was done to bring it to the attention of the public there would be a lot more interest. Unfortunately, as in the past, the press only gets interested when there is life-threatening drama and no-one wants to see that happen.

The Vendee has already suffered two deaths in its history and no-one should be under any misapprehension that better boats and better communications have made the race safe. The boats are much faster than they were in the past and speed brings added risk. It's one tough race. You have to really want to be there.

No respite in the Vendee

2008-12-11T10:41:00.000Z

Mike Golding has progressed well in the Vendee Globe so far, focusing only on the leader during any section of the race. But now, perhaps, he will need to focus on someone else. Indeed the whole fleet, including race leader Jean-Pierre Dick should be watching one man, Michel Desjoyeaux.

Desjoyeaux on Foncia has jumped two places in the last eight hours putting him neck and neck with second placed Roland Jourdain, just 35 miles behind the lead. If anyone can break away from the pack it is Desjoyeaux. The way he has driven his boat from a position 40 hours behind the fleet after a problem forced his return at the start of the race, has been the hallmark of a true racer.

Golding and the rest of the French skippers at the front of the pack have the class to stay with him but will they be able to match his single-minded drive and willingness to force the pace. Some will be worrying about yesterday's dismasting of Loick Peyron. How much should they push their boats with nearly 16,000 miles still ahead of them?

There may be no choice. Two skippers further back deserve a mention for the way they are trying to haul their boats back in to contention - Bernard Stamm, who is catching Brian Thompson, and Dominique Wavre. Both could yet figure in the final mix.

Peyron's misfortune is a sharp reminder to the front runners that, however well engineered their boats, this kind of racing will expose any weaknesses. These are sailing boats maintaining power-boat speeds in the world's most inhospitable ocean. The weather readings are forecasting 40 knots winds in the next day or two. There really is no respite.

More than a toe in the water

2008-12-10T17:20:00.000Z

Meanwhile Steve White explains why his Vendee Globe boat is called Toe in the Water. What began as a routine sail change turned in to a nightmare. His mission was rolling up and taking down his code 5 sail in about 35 knots of wind. No problems until it jammed.

"There it was, flogging itself silly at the front of the boat. I went up the front to try and free it up, but the furling drum is right at the end of the bowsprit - I was not going out there I can assure you - there was a big sea and we were surfing at nearly twenty knots sometimes!

"I taped my big kitchen knife to the deck brush handle and went up to deal with the problem. The cover of the furling line had wrinkled up like Nora Batty's stockings inside the drum, got caught on a cunningly placed spike and wedged itself up very very tightly!

"Whilst hacking away I took my eye off the ball missed a big wave which we surfed down, and got hosed down the deck, knife in hand. As we buried the bow in the wave in front at high speed, everything went dark. There was a whooshing noise in my ears as they filled up, and I held my breath as water went down my neck right down to my boots, up my nose, up my arms - everywhere.

"I took some sizable pieces out of my fingers as I tried to grab stanchions and guard wires on the way past. The force of the water was incredible and I still have the bruises to testify! When I came to a stop at the mast I had managed to keep hold of the knife luckily.

After trying for three hours to cut the sail away he decided the sail had to be dropped on deck. But the wind took it over the side. After two more hours, struggling to bring the sail back on board, the problem worsened when the sail wrapped around his keel, bending stanchions and threatening more damage.

"In the end I had to let the thing go before I had to get in the water and get it off the keel. I watched it sink. A £20,000 sail lost because of a £100 pound piece of string with a loose cover. All I had left was the swivel and two thimbles and a ten inch piece of the head. I don't mind admitting that nearly killed me. I was fairly well beaten up and bruised, and soaked to the skin, and rapidly becoming cold. It was 2 pm when I went on deck, and 7.15 pm when I came back down."

Loick Peyron dismasts

2008-12-10T16:42:00.000Z

Loick Peyron is safe aboard his yacht, Gitana Eighty, after losing his mast in 30 kts of wind and a single reef in the sail. He was inside his boat and escaped injury when the mast fell.

Peyron was in third place, 180 miles south of the Crozet Island and 650 miles from the Kerguelen Islands when the incident happened at 1pm today.

He still has his boom and must decide now where to head under a jury rig (a makeshift sail arrangement). Peyron had led the race for 16 days heading south in the Atlantic and was continuing to press hard in the leading pack.

Peyron had experienced halyard problems on his gennaker before entering the Indian Ocean and climbed the mast yesterday to deal with it. It isn't know yet whether this was a contributory cause.

One worry for the rest of the fleet is that the seas have not been particularly heavy for southern ocean sailing in the past few days. While 30 kts is a strong breeze, the boats can expect heavier winds than this before they reach Cape Horn.

Peyron said: "There were thirty knots of wind and Gitana Eighty had one reef in the main and was under Solent. There were no particular reasons for the damage and everything was fine on board, when the mast suddenly came down without forewarning. I was inside when I heard a loud noise. When I went outside on the deck, I could see the mast had gone. I still have the boom and we're currently considering our plans."

One thing that puzzles me about the incident is where the 30 kts of wind came from. It wasn't showing up on the wind indicators displayed on the tracking board. Perhaps they do not always reflect the actual conditions. That said, it could have been an unexpected gust as a weather front came through the fleet. Whatever the reason, Peyron's race is over. He gave it his all and I'm sure he'll be back.

A flavour of life on deck

2008-12-10T10:08:00.000Z

Mike Golding's choice of a more southerly routing in the Vendee Globe - a bold move given that Sebastien Josse has retaken the lead on a northerly track - looks to be paying dividends, nevertheless, with an 18 kt average, better than his closest rivals, during the last session.

Golding is within 25 miles of the lead with five boats bunched inside this narrow gap. The Southern Ocean has provided relatively benign and near perfect sailing conditions in the past two or three days, but the ability of these skippers to maintain pressure on each other seems relentless.

Golding summed this up a couple of days ago in a short report: "Everyone is looking to do a breakaway. Sébastien Josse (BT) in the north might have a bit of leverage there, but everyone is looking for a bit of leverage to get themselves away. It is hard to imagine going around the world and not seeing someone split away. You may see the boats group up more and I am surprised that the entire spread of the fleet is quite so small back to back - whether this will continue or not remains to be seen."

He paid tribute to the skippers doing their best to stay in contention further back: "Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pinda) is still very clearly in play. You look at the split in the British competitors and it is not very big. Dee Caffari (Aviva) is currently less distance from the front than I was in the last Vendée Globe and I went on to lead up the Atlantic. However, the person who is sailing quite extraordinarily well is Steve White (Toe in the Water). He is doing well with the boat and has surprised a lot of people."

Golding is the only British skipper so far to be disrupting the all-French party at the front of the fleet. There has been little evidence in the last week to suggest that pattern may be altered. One of the fastest skippers further back has been Bernard Stamm who has moved in to 14th place between Thompson and Sam Davies on Roxy (15th).

Stamm has moved much further south than Golding and it will be fascinating to see whether his gamble pays off. It is the kind of move that can make a big difference, either way, in a skippers fortunes. The leading skippers have been unwilling to take such big risks but those further back have little to lose and everything to gain.

The ranking information and tracker boards can provide us with so much sophisticated information these days that the armchair race followers have almost as much information as the competitors.

But what the boards can't show you is just what it's like out there for the sailors. A coloured arrow for 25 kts of wind cannot describe the numbing wind on your face, the puffiness of sodden fingers or the cloying dampness next to your skin. Sam Davies gave some flavour of life on deck in an email where she was outlining the difficulties of making sail changes at night:

"I never cease to be overawed by these midnight manoeuvres, in a lot of wind, pitch black, up on the bow as Roxy hoons along. You get the feeling of immense solitude, coupled with the power of the boat and the wild waves. Everything is monochrome and the black silhouette of the mast and sails tower over me.

"Sometimes, when I am on the bow, and Roxy takes off on a surf, the bow is way out of the water and I almost feel like I'm flying. The down-side is that, quite frequently the surf ends with a nice wave over the deck, and that is cold! But before you say it, don't worry, when I am on deck I am always clipped on with my super Spinlock deck harness, so I don't take any risks."

Never mind what she says about being clipped on. Standing on the bow of a bucking boat in a 30 knot wind and a confused sea on your own at night, hundreds of miles from land, takes a rare inner strength. There is no-one to see you perform your heroics and you cannot expect sympathy since it's entirely your choice to be there. But you deserve admiration in bucket loads and you might attract a little envy too from those who understand that engaging with the elements at their rawest is living indeed.

Following pack fall behind

2008-12-08T10:13:00.000Z

The following pack in the Vendee Globe now find themselves in a different weather system from the leaders. This one has lighter airs, meaning that it becomes ever more difficult to catch up. But there may be a little reordering in this group during the next day or two as both Bernard Stamm and Sam Davies are closing in on Brian Thompson.

Thompson seems to be struggling to get the best out of Bahrain Team Pindar which, in terms of its righting motion, is one of the most powerful boats in the fleet.

The followers, however, have the benefit of reading the strategies of those ahead and they would do well to recognise the advantage won by Jean-Pierre Dick in taking the most southerly route and stretching his lead to nearly 40 miles. Meanwhile Michel Desjoyeaux has picked off yet another of the leaders, moving to sixth place.

French yachts in a "Tour du Monde"

2008-12-07T20:23:00.000Z

The Vendee Globe just gets better and better. Jean-Pierre Dick's boldness after the last ice gate in taking the most southerly route has paid off, allowing him to snatch the lead in Paprec-Virbac 2.

But the fastest skippers in the last the session, all averaging over 18 kts, were Mike Golding, Loick Peyron and Michel Desjoyeaux. Desjoyeaux has moved serenely in to seventh place, almost neck and neck with Jean Le Cam, both sailing in the wake of Mike Golding.

Desjoyeaux seems unstoppable just now and Golding too seems to be flying. But it is impossible to tell what these speeds are demanding in concentration. The harder these skippers push, the more likely it is that someone makes a mistake.

But this race is so competitive that none of the leading pack can afford to let up. This new generation of Open 60 yachts is proving remarkably resilient.

I can't help but notice, however, that Brian Thompson has lost more miles on the front runners, now 527 miles behind and very much in the following pack. Mike Golding proved in the last Vendee that kind of deficit can be made up. Indeed Michel Desjoyeaux has done just that after finding himself 671 miles behind the leaders when still in the North Atlantic.

If Thompson is to stand a realistic chance of getting back in to contention he will need to begin pushing the boat harder. Any reticence to do so is understandable since the boat has not long been equipped with a new mast. But at this stage in the race, with so many boats flying along ahead, there is unlikely to be a second chance.

The lead has changed hands so often that the French sailors almost seem to be racing like cyclists in the Tour de France, taking it in turns as pace setters in what amounts to a "Tour du Monde". Certainly it must relieve the pressure to hand over the lead for a while. I wonder if this is part of the tactics? I know the French sailors speak to each other regularly so they are well appraised of their respective positions.

Golding jumps three places

2008-12-07T06:15:00.000Z

Mike Golding jumped three positions in the Vendee Globe during the last 12 hours, moving in to fourth place and justifying his choice to take a southerly track before the latest way point or "ice gate" as they are called in the race literature. These are artificial points on the map that the entrants must negotiate. The organisers fix these points in order to keep the fleet away from icebergs, a perpetual hazard in the Southern Ocean.

Golding has sailed steadily since making a mess of his start. That he allowed himself to creep over the line early at the start of a 24,000 miles race, shows just how even the most experienced of competitors can let their excitement get the better of them at times.

Anyway today he's back in the mix but he must remember now, as should all the competitors, that the next stretch of the race could place some of the biggest demands on the boats so far. During this coming week in the last Vendee, as this article reminds us, there were three retirements and a problem for a number of boats.

It also notes that last time around at this stage, Golding was 775 miles off the lead. This time the fleet is much more tightly bunched. If the Southern Ocean delivers one of its regular batterings there could be another reckoning in store for this year's fleet which has survived remarkably well after the retirements of the first week.

Desjoyeaux and Golding press the leaders

2008-12-06T23:04:00.000Z

Had Michel Desjoyeaux not lost 40 hours at the start of the Vendee Globe there can be no doubt he would have been out in front at this stage. As it is, today, he is within 90 miles of the leader and part of the leading pack in ninth place.

He and Mike Golding are well positioned to move further up the field approaching the next way point. I cannot understand why the mainstream media isn't picking up on this race. The competitiveness and closeness of the event at this stage of the race is astonishing.

World title for Williams in Malaysia

2008-12-06T16:30:00.000Z

Ian Williams, sponsored by Bahrain Team Pindar, won his second consecutive ISAF World Match Racing title today, at the Monsoon Cup in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, the final event of the 2008 World Match Racing Tour.

He beat one of his closest rivals Mathieu Richard, of Team French Spirit, in the quarter final stages, then secured the title when Sebastian Col, French Team K Challenge, nearest to Williams on points, lost to former World Match Racing Champion Peter Gilmour, of PST.

Williams and his crew of Gerry Mitchell, Mark Nicholls, Simon Shaw and Richard Sydenham, knew the had to sail out of their skins to win as the three leading crews were closely matched on points. Sailing aggressively from the start today, they won three straight matches against Richard, ending the Frenchman's championship hopes.

Williams, who was reigning champion going in to the Cup match, said: "We are absolutely thrilled. It was quite a strange way to win as we were out on the water when the Col/Gilmour match was decided. It all came together today, the crew were amazing and we really sailed like champions – I don’t think we have ever beaten Richard 3–0 before."

"We will be giving it our all tomorrow to reach the final of the Monsoon Cup and hope to make it a double celebration."

Williams needs one more race win to guarantee his place in the final of the Monsoon Cup, where he would then face either Peter Gilmour in a repeat of the 2007 final, or Torvar Mirsky of Mirsky Racing Team.

Now in its fourth year, the cup is contested by some of the best match racing sailors in the world. Twelve crews were competing on identical Foundation 36 Yachts for a share of $295,000 prize money. The entries this year included Britain’s three times Olympic Gold medallist and ISAF Rolex Sailor of the Year, Ben Ainslie, of Team Origin. Ainslie, who could only compete in a few of the match racing events this year, due to his Olympic commitments, is to contest the whole of the championship next year.

I hope the BBC has made a note of Williams' success. The UK doesn't have too many world champions and he deserves to be among those recognised during the annual Sports Personality of the Year evening on December 14.

Monsoon Cup

2008-12-05T09:50:00.000Z

For the past few weeks I have concentrated here almost entirely on the Vendee Globe, with odd mentions of Pete Goss. But there are other big sailing events going on just now.

I had hoped to catch up with the Volvo Ocean Race in Capetown but domestic engagements got in the way so my plan now is to visit the boats in Singapore in January where I hope to get the opportunity to sail in a practice session on Puma, in third place just now.

More immediately, this weekend in fact, we shall know the outcome of the world match racing championship at the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia. Again, I turned down an invitation to attend the event, partly because I have a feature in the Weekend FT magazine on Saturday. The feature that focuses on the current title holder, Ian Williams, was written some time ago.

This is the problem with magazine writing - it lacks the immediacy of the blog where I can click to the event that shows all of us the standings as they are. Anyway Williams will know this weekend whether or not he retains his title. I think it will be tough for him to pull it off but a consolation is that it's just as tough for his immediate rivals.

If you want to get a feel for world match racing you can watch televised Monsoon Cup coverage here.

Desjoyeaux "in the zone"

2008-12-05T08:56:00.000Z

Knowing what it's like to spend time at sea, attempting to maintain racing speeds,I feel a little bit guilty consulting the Vendee Globe tracker software from the comfort of my living room.

You see the positions and the average speeds and you find yourself wondering why so-and-so has lost time. Then you have to punch yourself to recall the conditions out there, except you can't recall them because your system has blotted out all the bad memories.

Some of the speeds I can only imagine. Michael Desjoyeaux has clocked 30 knots on Foncia. The fastest I have travelled on a yacht was 26 knots on ABN Amro One during an in port race in the last Volvo Ocean race and that was in a relatively benign sea.

Desjoyeaux's performance in the last two weeks has stood out for me in this race. The Vendee holder is not letting go of his title without a fight and if he continues to maintain his pace he will win again.

But there are a lot of "ifs" in this race. The consistency of the leaders, where the lead has changed hands several times, underlines the competitiveness of the event. Yann Elies on Generali has his nose in front just now but there is still less than a 100 miles separating the top nine boats.

And who continues to make ground on that pack, now only 120 miles from the lead and 30 or so miles from Mike Golding? It's that man Desjoyeaux.

We don't see this racing as it really is. We see pictures taken by on-board cameras of skippers enjoying a quiet moment away from the helm that is on auto pilot. We don't see them up the mast and rarely on the helm. Yet Desjoyeaux helmed for 21 hours at a stretch a day or two back. I guess he must have had the odd pee break and food break in that time. But the point is that he wanted to be driving his boat on in an effort to make up miles on the leaders.

The auto helms work well but, as Brian Thompson pointed out in one of his reports, self-helming maintains better average speeds.

Vendee racing is the sternest test of such abilities. If I was Josse or Peyron or Elies just now I would be worrying less about my immediate rivals and more about Desjoyeaux. He's not going to slow down and he's not going to worry about any of them. He's sailing his own race and he's in the zone.

Again, what is difficult to know without being there, is just how much these skippers have in reserve. The next two weeks will test that reserve to the limit.

Reading Pete Goss's blogg, it seems he did spot one of the Vendee boats the other night.

Neck and neck after 6,000 miles

2008-12-04T08:21:00.000Z

After almost 6,000 miles of hard racing, the leading three yachts in the Vendee Globe were separated by just three miles this morning. The winds have been rising and some of the boats are pushing hard just now. Expect breakages. I suspect the French-owned Kerguelen Islands will be preparing the welcome mat for somebody before long although Cape Town beckons if any boat suffers too much in the next day or two.

Foncia moves closer

2008-12-03T11:10:00.000Z

As the Vendee Globe fleet lines up for their first ice gate (a way point established to prevent the boats going in to colder more southerly waters where icebergs are common) it is still tight among the leading pack.

But the boat I have been watching for days now is Michel Desjoyeaux's Foncia that has moved in to the top 10 just 200 or so miles behind the leader. After returning to the start for repairs, Desjoyeaux faced the equivalent in motor racing of starting from the pit lane when the rest of the field was out of sight. Since then he has made spectacular progress to the stage where he is almost back in contention.

Brian Thompson and Sam Davies, on the other hand, have fallen back from the leading pack. Thompson is now almost 500 miles behind the leader at a stage of the race where he really needs to be closer. Two hundred miles is a relatively small gap on a round-the-world race, but 500 miles is becoming significant.

It's not been plain sailing for Thompson as he explains in his latest report, describing a trip up the mast to deal with some chafe on the lower shrouds:

"I got all rigged up with the climbing gear, and went half way up the mast level with the damaged section of shroud. It did not look too bad at all. I would just need to put some tape on it. But how to get two metres out from the mast when I am getting thrown around?

"I had brought a boat hook with me to snare the shroud and pull me out, but I realised that I could get left swinging a long way if I let go, and holding onto the stay would be no easy task.

"I was getting banged around enough just holding on to the mast. I was starting to wonder how I could do this when I tried putting my feet on the mast and trapezing off it, I could just reach the shroud, so working horizontally, with my back to the deck, I wrapped the tape at arm's length around the shroud. It was a good ab workout!

"The boat’s motion was getting more and more violent as a wind shift had made the autopilot steer more into the swells, so I was glad to finish the taping and descend to the deck, only slightly sore in my legs from getting thrown around the mast. So job done, the tape should stop the sunlight getting to the PBO fibres that are inside the shroud."

This was in addition to further sail repairs and the heavy job of shifting sails on deck before a gybe. It's tough out there.

First albatross as Thompson stands still

2008-12-01T16:46:00.000Z

What a difference the weekend has made in the Vendee Globe. Michel Desjoyeaux has called on all his experience to sail in to 11th position, now 221 miles behind the leader and fairly tramming along at 18 knots in the last seession.

He had moved 120 miles in front of Brian Thompson who finally bit the bullet today and took a four hour time penalty incurred at the race start.

The penalty proved a little more costly for Thompson since the wind deserted him for another two hours, leaving him with a lot to make up, but his sail repair is completed and he sounded to be still in good spirits in his report today, having seen his first albatross of the race.

Meanwhile Dee Caffari in 15th place is struggling with a knee injury.

The boats that have sailed furthest south in to the "roaring forties" have yet to see much of a speed advantage so far but that could still happen. In the meantime Sebastien Josse has moved 42 miles ahead of Loick Peyron.

Vendee has a new leader

2008-11-27T23:05:00.000Z

As the boats compress, approaching the St Helena high pressure system, Loick Peyron has lost the the Vendee Globe lead to Sebastien Josse after setting the pace for 14 days. The exchange of lead shows just how tight this race remains after thousands of miles of full-on ocean racing.

Mike Golding seemed to have slowed to the west in the last few hours although his distance from the lead is still narrowing, now under 60 miles.

Michel Desjoyeaux is still charging, meanwhile, on Foncia, and, while nearly two days sailing away from the leaders, could make much of that up in the next couple of weeks, given the progress he has made already since he was forced back to the race start.

Still tight in the Vendee

2008-11-26T11:38:00.000Z

There's no denying it - I have become addicted to the Vendee Globe and can't get through the day without my morning and evening "fix," looking at the positions. It's good to move close in on the tracker (link in sidebar) to see the relative positions of the boats.

The leading boats are too spread from east to west now for front runner, Loik Peyron, to shadow each of the following pack and there is no doubt the pack is closing up. At 62 miles out from the lead, Mike Golding is gradually closing the gap, as are the others. Sebastien Josse is just 17 miles off the lead this morning and Armel Le Cleac'h is charging in fourth place.

The speeds are climbing but the competition is so intense that not one of this leading group can afford a mistake. All the boats are well west of the rhumb line (in this case the line representing the shortest distance of the course). This is because they want to avoid the light winds associated with a high pressure weather system that sits over St Helena (The so-called St Helena High).

But at some stage they will have to increase their easting as they approach the Cape of Good Hope. The skippers face a constant speed-against-distance judgement. Golding has moved out west in search of speed, a tactic that has rewarded him well although all the leading boats are recording good speeds just now.

Meanwhile Brian Thompson has dropped 244 miles behind the leading boat while Marc Guillemot has moved within 200 miles. It's important that Thompson stays focused, as Golding is, on the leading boat and no other.

Of course sustaining high speeds over long distances means that some boats will fail at some point. Jérémie Beyou is the latest retirement. He won't be the last.

Golding in the groove

2008-11-23T16:52:00.000Z

Mike Golding appears to be sailing "in the groove" on Ecover III just now, breaking French dominance in the top 10 and shifting in to sixth place, his highest position since the start of the Vendee.

As the race goes in to its third week, it is still relatively tight with less than a hundred miles between the first and ninth boats.

The need for continuous checking and maintenance was underlined today when Jeremie Beyou was forced to head off towards Brazil for an unassisted pit stop in order to fix some damaged spreaders.

The top half of the order is divided in to two distinct packs now, with the top nine moving a hundred miles clear of Wavre, Guillemot, Thompson and Davies. If Golding can maintain his consistent 12+ knots progress he will soon be up among the leading boats within 50 miles of pace setter Loick Peyron.

If the race has demonstrated anything so far, it is the excellence of the single-handed French Figaro racing where the leading sailors have all cut their competitive teeth. The message for other nationalities has to be, either get in to Figaro racing, start a similar series elsewhere, or get used to the best French sailors setting the pace.

Of course fortunes will change as boats begin to suffer damage. Few, if any, of these competitors can expect to achieve a problem free rounding. The winner will be the one who can race consistently fast while keeping problems to a minimum.

Both Golding and Thompson among the British sailors have the quality to threaten although Thompson has been struggling with a sail repair. Sam Davies is sailing well too but her less powerful boat was always going to lack the speed of the leaders.

If Golding can keep his boat together - and that's a big if that applies to all the skippers - he could get in to contention for the latter half of the race. If Brian Thompson can keep his sails together and begin to exploit Bahrain Team Pindar's power advantage, he too could soon see himself in the top 10 but he must start to make an impression on the leaders soon. The reality is today he is 224 miles behind the leading boat after closing the gap to just over 180 miles last week.

Even more disappointing is the performance of Jonny Malbon on Artemis. This is a well funded boat, purpose built for the race, yet he has fallen 610 miles behind the leader in 20th place, trailing behind Steve White who had to scratch around for funding in a relatively old boat.

Much of the fleet must have passed Pete Goss in his Cornish Lugger on the Equator yesterday although Goss makes no mention in his blog.

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Sam Davies gets her kit off

2008-11-20T14:53:00.000Z

Sam Davies looks to be enjoying her race on Roxy in the Vendee. As the competition and the weather heats up, she's shed her foulies and donned her bikini. Among all those rugged weatherbeaten Frenchman, she has revealed her secret media weapon - a belly-button stud.

It's still not quite enough to push John Sergeant off the front pages but it just might begin to arouse one or two tired sports editors - the sort who like nothing more than a Wimbledon knicker shot. Of course if she were to shed a little more she could wake up the Sun newsdesk too.

I was going to headline this note: "Sam Davies sheds her foulies," then I thought: what would the Sun headline say?

Vendee boats catching the Mystery

2008-11-20T10:22:00.000Z

By my reckoning the first of the Vendee boats should be just about overtaking Pete Goss in his Spirit of Mystery today somewhere in the Doldrums.

It says something for the efficiency of the latest Vendee yachts that Loick Peyron, maintained speeds of up to 9 knots in calm seas yesterday, stretching his lead by something like 15 miles.

This meant that although Mike Golding had moved in to seventh place overnight - his highest position so far - he dropped miles on Peyron.

By 11am today, however, when the next set of position reports came in, conditions and fortunes were changing again.

Peyron's boat speed had dropped to 2 knots and Golding had closed the gap to 76 miles. It looks as if the race has reached that bunching up stage expected in the Doldrums. Sebastien Josse is just 14 miles off the lead with the third, fourth and fifth boats about 16 miles or so behind him.

A lot can happen in the next 24 to 48 hours. There is a real opportunity here for boats to catch up. The first to spring out of the Doldrums will have the chance to speed away from the pack, demoralising those behind.

Peyron is most likely to get away first as he has been shadowing his closest competitors. But there could be a chance for a boat that has made a bit of a gamble on its routing to make a big gain if it pays off - or fall further behind if it doesn't.

This is tactical long distance racing at its best. Imagine lone sailors, fighting with sleep deprivation in cloying heat and humidity, needing to concentrate and trim as if they were in a round-the-cans race. It's impossible to match such short-term, intense levels of concentration but those who can maintain high levels of trimming will see the pay-off in these light conditions.

As Goss points out in his slow moving lugger, this is the first time he has been heading for the Equator when he has not been racing. What luxury.

See links to Mystery Blog and Vendee positions in sidebar

Wavre back in the fight

2008-11-19T16:12:00.000Z

It's great to see Dominique Wavre - forced to return soon after the race start - fighting his way back in to the following pack as the Vendee fleet heads in to the Doldrums. Sam Davies is doing well too, overtaking Brian Thompson who must be disappointed to find himself in 13th position behind a much older boat as Mike Golding shifts in to 7th place less than 90 miles adrift of the leader,Loick Peyron.

I would expect the leaders to be very close just now to the latitude reached by Pete Goss in Spirit of Mystery but I can't see his weblog as I post this note. I have posted the link anyway so you can see for yourself when the blog is fixed. Vendee links are in the right hand side-bar.

Thompson may be struggling now but his boat is powerful enough to pick up steam as the fleet heads south in to windier waters. His challenge now is to keep in touch in the light winds. The leading Frenchmen are going to take some catching but Golding isn't letting go. The race has been remarkably open so far, the lead changing hands often without anyone getting too far ahead. As the fleet leaves the Doldrums it may give someone the opportunity to make a break. We shall soon see

On shore woes

2008-11-13T13:11:00.000Z

It's not looking good for Alex Thomson's Hugo Boss. Could this be this year's Vendee's first retirement?

Meanwhile it's sporting of Bahrain Team Pindar to be helping Derek Hatfield. You wouldn't see that in the Ferrari pit for Lewis Hamilton.

Goss recalls the Vendee

2008-11-13T10:43:00.000Z

As the Vendee boats approach Madeira I'm struck by how close the race is at this juncture with the lead still changing hands. It's fun to look at the tracker (see right hand link) which shows how the boats are bunched.

The two lead boats must be in good sight of each other, spurring each other on. Further back, I suspect that Brian Thompson has Mike Golding in sight now too. This makes a difference competitively although it's important that those further down the field do not begin having their own private race without keeping an eye on the bigger picture.

I'm watching Michel Desjoyeaux too striving to get back in to contention. At the rate he's going he has a good chance. Dominique Wavre, meanwhile, is almost back with the top half of the field.

Separately I have been dipping in to Pete Goss's blog (link in right hand side bar)and his own tracker here. He's hoping that he might catch sight of the approaching Vendee fleet at some stage soon. The fleet includes Raphael Dinelli, who Goss famously rescued in the 1996-97 Vendée Globe.

Goss turned back and sailed upwind to save the French man who had capsized, out of reach of any other possible rescue. The rescue earned Goss the Légion d'Honneur and a lasting friendship with Dinelli.

About the Vendee, he says: "The Vendee is more than a race, and it is how the person reacts to whatever fate chooses to throw at them that counts. It's private, something that the podium can't get to grips with as it lacks the depth, but it is real and lasting to the individual who has endured and enjoyed the ups and downs."

French skippers dominate early Vendee running

2008-11-12T20:44:00.000Z

It's still very early days in the Vendee Globe race, but as the boats approach Madeira with nearly 800 miles already covered it's disappointing as a Brit to note that the top 10 places are held exclusively by Frenchmen - and this is without Michel Desjoyeaux who is putting in some strong times after returning to the start.

The next four places are held by British skippers, two of them women. Sooner or later I would expect Mike Golding and Brian Thompson to begin mixing it in that leading group although Thompson must still take a four hour penalty he incurred as a result of a rule infringement just before the start.

The British women, Sam Davies and Dee Caffari are sailing exceptionally well. Davies has a second generation boat, less powerful than many others in the field including that of Thompson who still trails her.

While Caffari's boat, Aviva is a more powerful third generation yacht, identical to Golding's Ecover 3, she has much less experience in downwind racing at this level. To be keeping pace with Golding shows just how much her technique has improved in the past year.

It's no surprise, however, to see Davies doing well as she trains with the elite French squad. The squad system seems to be paying off just now but there is still a long way to go. All the same, you wouldn't be betting just now against yet another French win. I still think that Thompson has the power and Golding the experience to mount strong challenges but they cannot afford to let the leaders move too far ahead.

When leading boats begin to pick up new weather systems ahead of the rest it can really split the field. So tactical decisions over the next two or three days could prove crucial. Keep an eye on Dominique Wavre. He's been putting in some blistering times after his early reversal.

You can click on the Vendee Positions link in the right hand side bar to keep up with the times.

Are the Vendee boats tough enough?

2008-11-11T15:37:00.000Z

Nine boats of the 30 that set out on the Vendee Globe - almost a third of the fleet - have been forced back to port, including Alex Thomson's Hugo Boss.

There is still plenty time for them to catch up as Dominic Wavre is proving, back in the reckoning after returning to the start on Sunday for electrical repairs.

The weather has been rough with 55 mph winds but the fleet has to expect these conditions in a round-the world race. If so many boats are experiencing such problems at the start of the race, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the event.

I think we're going to be looking at a lot of withdrawals before the race is finished. There is no turning back in the Southern Ocean.

Speed and seaworthiness

It raises the question of whether some designers have struck the right balance between speed and seaworthiness. You should never compromise on the latter for round-the-world sailing but, such is the technical input in to modern racing yachts, that I wonder if some designers are tempted to under-engineer, however unwittingly, as they strive to build the fastest boat.

Then there are the skippers themselves, under pressure right from the start although, as circumstances have shown already in this race, fortunes can be reversed in a matter of hours.

Sam Davies has the right idea. Her latest report shows just what is involved. She is no Amazon but what she lacks in body strength she makes up for in guts.

Enormous waves

She says: "It was pretty rough out there yesterday - I saw gusts of 55knots of wind, and the waves were enormous. I had set up my strong wind configuration in plenty of time, and Roxy hung in there under pilot as I braced myself at the chart table. It was full-on!

"The front went through early in the evening with a nicely timed wind shift that meant I was sailing directly into the path of a big ship. It was pretty close, as I could easily see the ship and there was close to zero visibility, so I had to crash tack to avoid it.

Bucking bronco

"Luckily, due to the wind shift, the tack put me on a perfect course. However, because of the urgency of the manoeuvre, I had had no time to do ballast or stacking. So, as a consequence, I spent my night stacking (sails) to windward, in a bucking bronco. As you can imagine it was pretty much impossible!

"So, right now, things are drying out. There is a nice 15 knots of wind and we are just about to round Cap Finisterre, where I should be able to put the gennaker up. I am totally shattered. It has been a big start to this Vendee Globe. I am desperately in need of some sleep and rest, to try to get rid of the cold I left with on Sunday. I also need to have some time to clean up the oil that is sliding around the aft compartment. I reckon I am not the only skipper with these needs."

Sam is holding her position well just outside the top 10. The leading Briton now is Mike Golding who moved in to the top 10 during the day.

Naked truth

I have only met Sam in her foulies so was surprised to find how she looked in her warpaint for this Daily Mail coverage (well, not that much coverage!) which, being the Daily Mail, just had to tell its readers that Samantha sometimes likes to sail naked (this blog would never stoop to such blatent sensationalism). Save it for the Equator Sam!

By my reckoning she's almost within binocular range of Brian Thompson. Now there's an incentive.

A tough first night for the Vendee boats

2008-11-10T16:39:00.000Z

It's far too early to venture any opinion on the Vendee Globe race that started yesterday but after a tough night in 20 to 30 knot winds Dee Caffari must be delighted that she is the front-running British sailor among the early leaders.

Three boats have had to turn back for repairs and will need to do some catching up. But there is still plenty of time. This is a marathon, not a sprint, which is why it seems strange that someone with the experience of Mike Golding should have gone over the line early. It was so unnecessary.

Looking at the distance covered between the last two rankings, however, he seems to be cranking up his speed.So is Sam Davies on Roxy. Comparing their readings with that of Brian Thompson it would look as if Thompson has had a problem.

Surfing the web

2008-11-06T20:17:00.000Z

Gybe away to your heart's content. I haven't hit anything yet, apart from the odd buoy. If only the Solent was like this.

Sailing in spirit

2008-10-27T17:31:00.000Z

I've just been reading some of the blogs written by Pete Goss from his Spirit of Mystery Voyage.

The boat is a picture and the interior looks really comfortable but it seems they had some rough weather at the start. Pete makes some interesting remarks about the ease of working with wood. I agree with his general sentiments that the world has become too complex, too over-engineered. It must have been great to get started.

Baranson record attempt fails

2008-10-24T17:18:00.000+01:00

Hats off to Richard Branson and his son and daughter for having the guts to kick off their record breaking attempt on the Atlantic ahead of one hell of a storm that wrecked the bid.

Yes, they were in the hands of an extremely experienced crew, headed by Mike Sanderson, director of Team Origin, and it was the weight of that experience that probably led to them taking a risk with the weather that, had they pulled it off, would have ensured a fast crossing.

But on a boat built for speed, like Virgin Money, there is nowhere to hide and nowhere to find any comfort; so, if they didn't know what they were in for before hand, they certainly do now.

"We have had an eventful trip with waves up to 40 feet, gale force winds between force 7 and 9. We got taken by one massive monster wave, which approached us from behind and took one of our life rafts. Fortunately all the crew were harnessed in, so everybody was safe," said Branson.

The storm blew out a spinnaker and ripped the mainsail beyond an easy repair so the team had no option but to abandon the attempt. The boat is heading for Bermuda.

The team hasn't ruled out another attempt this year if the conditions allow. "The boat will be ready to sail again in the next few weeks, and it’s possible that there might be one week left this season, " says Branson "otherwise it will be spring before it can go again. But everybody on board the boat is committed to get the record. The boat did well but the conditions were too bad for the boat to bear."

I heard the other day that Alex Johnson, the 42-year-old hedge fund manager who owns the 99ft Virgin Money, formerly called Speedboat, ordered the £7.4m yacht without mentioning anything to his wife until he had taken delivery. I can believe it. If you're reading this Mrs Johnson, he's in Bermuda!

All at sea, nearly

2008-10-14T23:14:00.001+01:00

So much is happening in sailing just now it's difficult to know where to start. The Volvo Ocean race has started and Ericsson 4 has taken an early lead from Puma. Follow their progress here.

Meanwhile Pete Goss is counting down to the start of his voyage to Australia in his Cornish lugger, The Spirit of Mystery. His web site tells the whole story. I featured him a while back here.

The Vendee Globe boats are making their final preparations. Boats are beginning to gather at Les Sables d'Olonne for the race start on November 9. More about the race here.

While all this is happening, members of Team Origin, the America's Cup challenger, are in New York with the yacht, Virgin Money, waiting for favourable weather systems to sail with Sir Richard Branson in a new attempt to break the transatlantic mono-hull record, which stands at 6 days, 17 hrs, 52 minutes and 39 seconds. It's going to be a busy few weeks.

The Needles up close.

2008-10-14T15:44:00.000+01:00

Anyone who has sailed regularly in the Solent out of Portsmouth, Southampton or Cowes will be familiar with the chain of rocks called the Needles - probably the most famous landmark for sailors in the south of England.

I have passed them many times in yachts but it was only this last weekend that I managed to get up close and personal - too personal as it happens.

A few of us visited the Isle of Wight to spend a day kayaking and learning some of the rescue and recovery routines. We decided to go for a paddle in the morning and do the routines in the afternoon. The weather was good and the tide was receding with the prospect of a bit of breeze getting up later in the day.

We headed west towards the Needles from the Cowes direction within the Solent where it was pretty calm, but as we approached we could see that between the rocks the sea was much less benign.

The Needles get their name from a spindly pillar called "Lot's Wife" that collapsed in a storm in 1764. Today they resemble more a set of molars.

Four of us paddled out and rounded the lighthouse under the supervision of Owen Burson, an experienced instructor who runs Isle of Wight Sea Kayaking. On the channel side of the Needles there was a bit of chop but nothing too worrying.

There was quite a bit more chop, however, between the lighthouse rock and the second of the "white teeth" jutting out from the island. The idea was to paddle through this gate towards the calmer water beyond.

I volunteered to go first, with the others following, spaced a good four boat-lengths between each kayak, so we didn't get in the way of each other. Just as I had reached the roughest part between the rocks I heard a shout from Charles Godden (who crops up with BJ - Mark Brownjohn - another of our group, in this story) behind to watch out as his canoe ploughed in to mine. I had no means of steadying myself and there was a slow inevitability about the capsize.

There was time enough for me to rip the spray deck away as I went over (no I haven't had the self-righting and rolling lesson yet) but it didn't feel too comfortable to be a canoe's length from the rocks in the waves. This is not the place you would choose to fall out of a kayak.

Charles held on to the upturned kayak as Owen arrived and paddled me clear while I held on to my paddle and the rear of my kayak. Once away from the cliffs we were able to go through the recovery routine - emptying the canoe and clambering back in while it was rafted to Owen's kayak. Then it was back with the spray deck and once more through the gate - this time successfully.

Everything went well during the recovery but I can tell you it was a relief to be back inside those cliffs. It taught me just how easy it is to fall out of one of these sea kayaks and just why it's important for comparative novices to be with an instructor. I don't blame Charles (well of course I did, continually, for the rest of the day, just as he insisted he had saved me), it was just one of those things.

In the afternoon at a calmer spot near the shore we rehearsed the routine that had happened for real in the morning. Owen says that it's good to practice your balance at home on a big exercise ball. Safer too. I must remember that.

iShares Cup, Amsterdam

2008-09-20T13:35:00.001+01:00

All that wind in the past few weeks and when you need a good breeze it disappears. It's like mid-summer today in the Amsterdam canal basin where 10 Extreme-40 catamarans are competing in the final round of the iShares Cup.

The only teams with a chance of winning the series are Alinghi and Team Origin and up to half way through the programme, Alinghi look to be breezing it, which, given the light airs, is hardly the right choice of adjective.

I spent some time this morning floating around on Team Origin with a star-studded cast of sailors including three Olympic Gold medalists, Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy and Andrew "Bart" Simpson, joined on the boat by Sir Keith Mills, the team principal.

Mills has been working behind the scenes helping to broker a deal on the America's Cup between Ernesto Bertorelli and Larry Ellison.

He seems optimistic that the two businessmen who have been at the centre of protracted legal action over the future of the race, will come to an accommodation before the next court hearing in the New Year.

So will the next event be multi-hulled or single-hulled? It's too early to say but most people I have spoken with think it's inconceivable that the future of the event will not consist of a single-hulled challenge competition preceding a two-boat sail off for the cup itself. Mills still believes the challengers will be racing against each other next year, culminating in a cup race in 2011.

And what of the two big multi-hulls that have been built for BMW Oracle and Alinghi? Mills thinks they will make fine museum pieces. What a ridiculous waste of time and money.

In a class of their own

2008-09-10T12:44:00.000+01:00

During one of the Rolex races I sailed with Charles Dunstone, chief executive and co-founder of Carphone Warehouse. From the back of his yacht, Hamilton II there was a grandstand view of two J-class yachts, Velsheda and Ranger competing head-to-head just to our rear.

It made for some stunning pictures, two of which I have featured here. I'm keen to write a feature on the J-class yachts which must still be the classiest sail boats on the water all those years after they first appeared. There are four new ones in build right now so the class is going to have an injection of some real competition. We ain't seen nothing yet.

On the water, at least, there is no love lost between Ronald de Waal, owner of Velsheda and John Williams, the owner of Ranger (the two boats collided at the Rolex even) but the rivalry may be coming to an end if Williams decides to sell Ranger as some reports have suggested.

Porto Cervo Marina, Sardinia

2008-09-10T11:46:00.000+01:00

It’s always interesting to see how the other half lives. But in the week of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup we're not talking about the other half but the other 0.00001 per cent. There used to be a night spot here nicknamed “the millionaires’ club.” Today they have renamed it the “billionaires club.”

The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda was built in 1967 by the Aga Khan - the Paris-based head of the Nizari Muslims, the largest branch of the Ismaili Shi'a sect - and a few of his friends. Create an exclusive yacht club within a sleepy, sunny, rocky inlet and wait. One by one the big yachts came – the really big yachts: yachts with toy cupboards in the stern holds. In the place where smaller yachts store their mops, buckets and painters, the biggest maxis have sailing dinghies, power boats and canoes.

Search across the deck, beyond the godlike physiques of the so-called rock star sailors to the scruffiest incarnation of Harold Steptoe and you may well be looking at the owner.

What do the sailors do after a hard day’s racing in the Rolex Cup? A group of them I noticed were playing with remote controlled yachts. The rest were hitting the bar.

The super yachts range from sleek Wallys (I have always thought it must be something of an indignity to describe oneself as a Wally yacht owner) to the timeless J-class boats evoking the great days of sail.

The shirts may be scruffy but there’s no mistaking the accessories. Men with chunky watches, glistening like medieval body armour, heave their burdened wrists chest high with all the effort of a weight-training exercise.

If you want to give a maxi-yacht owner a hernia, just ask him the time. The yachts look unsinkable; you also get the impression they are fully recession-proofed.

“It’s a different world,” an event organiser confessed to me. “Before I discovered the big boat circuit I had no idea it existed. They keep an incredibly low profile,” she said.

There’s no stigma in being rich in this place. Not much advantage either. No matter how big you make your boat there will always be another that's bigger or taller with vast swathes of teak. They have a name for the rain forest here. They call it decking.

Williams wins Danish Open

2008-09-01T21:12:00.000+01:00

Ian Williams extended his lead in the current World Match Racing Tour at the weekend when he and his Pindar racing team won the Danish Open. Williams, the current world champion, pulled clear of his nearest rival, Frenchman Mathieu Richard who failed to make the semi-finals.

This was my first trip to one of the match racing events and the Danes were very welcoming hosts. All the crews have identical boats so it really is a test of team work, tactics and helming skills.

There is simply no room for error so every manoeuvre has to be like clockwork. It's more like boxing than racing with umpires following the two-boat races on an end-to-end course that must be rounded twice. This means that spectators have a clear understanding of who is in the lead as the boats converge for each buoy rounding.

In the battle for dominance, however the boats undertake many more manoeuvres than in a fleet race, tacking and back tacking when fighting for position. In the pre-race jostling they sometimes do a series of pirouettes as they try to make the best position on the line.

The tour seems to be attracting increasing interest from potential hosts, not to name some big names in sailing such Magnus Holmberg. A group from a Bahrain bank were visiting this tie, looking at the feasibility of staging an event in Bahrain.

The tour includes stages in Brazil, Germany, Korea, Switzerland and Sweden but has no UK event as yet. This seems odd since the world champion is British. Sooner or later one of the hungrier ports - Cardiff, Liverpool or Hartlepool perhaps - is going to wake up and bid for the event. It beats duck racing.

Danish Open - World Match Racing Tour 2008

2008-08-28T12:57:00.000+01:00

I'm packing my bags for Frederikshavn which is hosting the Danish round of the World Match Racing Tour. The plan is to profile Ian Williams, the world match racing champion. I met Ian over a year ago in Antigua where we exchanged life stories while propping up a bar in English Harbour (he's the one in the light coloured cap).

Unfortunately I forgot everything he told me (which might be a good thing). This time I plan to have my notebook and pen with me. During the Beijing Olympics If you saw the way Ben Ainslie was edging out his nearest rival, Zach Railey, in the final race of the Finn class - the one that had to be abandoned and re-run - you could get an idea of how match racing works.

When one yacht is racing another - as they do in the America's Cup - tactics are everything. Often the boat that gets its nose in front first will try to cover any moves by its competitor.

Williams is a master of this kind of sailing. If Ainslie joins the full tour next year as expected, it will make for some exciting head-to-heads. The only reason we have not seen Williams in an Olympic event, incidentally, is that the men's match racing discipline was voted out of the Olympics before Athens in 2004.

It's great that in the UK we have so much to cheer among our medal haul. Yet only Ainslie among the UK Olympic sailors could be said to be anything like a household name, although many of the rest of them, such as Iain Percy, are becoming well known within the sailing fraternity.

It's a reflection of our society, perhaps, that a nonentity such as Jade Goody, famous only because she appeared on a dire mainstream TV programme, would probably garner more recognition in a street survey than any of the UK's Olympic medal-winning sailors.

When a recent street survey was carried out in the US and people were asked if they could name any sailors the top three were: 1. Christopher Columbus, 2.Ted Turner, 3. Popeye!

That's why I want to write about Williams - not that the FT magazine is exactly mainstream - because people of his calibre deserve better recognition outside sailing. He is world champion for goodness sake!

The last time I saw him, incidentally, was during Cowes week when he was heading towards the pontoons after winning the Laser SB3 class. It was so far ahead of the field I couldn't see the second finisher. That's how good he is.

Cowes to Madeira

2008-08-16T20:45:00.000+01:00

Cowes week came and went. I always think Cowes town gets too rowdy during the annual regatta while out on the water it's chaotic.

I buried my prejudices and sailed in one of the Sunsail races. It wasn't a bad race. Unfortunately we were saddled with a particularly poorly prepared boat (what preparation?) that had a ripped sail with a baton missing. Our helm deserved a medal.

I can see the attraction for corporate teams who can come down from the city, have a fun day's racing, then clear off with a one-off rental payment - no mooring and upkeep fees for a company boat.

The day after the Artemis Challenge, a round-the-Isle of Wight race contested by Open 60s,I had the opportunity to go out on the winning boat, Pindar. With a righting moment of 48 tons compared with about 38 tons on Artemis, it has a big power advantage. It's a beast of a boat, but an amazingly well-balanced beast from the helm. I'm preparing an FT feature on Brian Thompson who I believe has an excellent chance of winning the Vendee Globe in what promises to be the most competitive Vendee yet with some exceptionally strong French and British entrants.

Just now, however, my thoughts are with Puma Logic, the boat I helped crew in the 2006 Round Britain and Ireland race. It looks like they had some fierce weather in the early part of the race from Cowes to Madeira.

If you want to get a taste of what ocean racing is really like in a big sea on a comparatively small boat, read the Puma Logic blog. Good luck to all of them.

Round the Island Race

2008-06-27T22:55:00.000+01:00

Come and join ICAP Leopard for the Isle of Wight Round the Island Race this weekend, said the ICAP team who hope to break the race record to add to a string of other records they have broken of late.

It would have been quite something to have been out on the rail of this super-maxi and back in Cowes for lunch. Sadly I had another commitment - sea kayaking with friends, off the Isle of Wight ironically.

It should be quite a sight, watching close on 1,900 entries competing in what must be Britain's most popular yacht race. If you're out there and you see four canoes bobbing around on the water as you're approaching The Needles do give us a wave.

Sailing the dream

2008-06-17T01:17:00.000+01:00

Hilary Lister has begun her remarkable voyage around the coasts of Britain and Ireland. For those who are unfamiliar with this 36-year-old quadriplegic woman, suffice to say that she controls her Artemis 20 yacht using a "sip and puff" system of straws. If you would like to cheer her on, here is her itinerary. More about Hilary here.