Alex Thomson's Open 60 Hugo Boss came under the knife this morning as the six strong team of boatbuilders got to work on cutting away the damaged area of the boat.

Alex Thomson Racing have been working round the clock to repair HUGO BOSS in time for the start of the Vendee Globe on November 9^th. 

Here’s an update on progress.

This is going to be the longest day for the Hugo Boss team as they re-assemble and launch the boat.

She came out the shed on schedule early this morning, emerging into a dank, chilly dawn, going in to the slings, dwarfed by the huge travel hoist on the commercial dock ready for launching.

At 05h00 this morning Alex Thomson arrived back where he had started the Vendee Globe some 61 hours previously .

The team had to wait until 10h30 for the tide to enter the canal into Les Sables d'Olonne. By 14h00 the mast was taken out and at 15h30 HUGO BOSS was lifted from the water.

Towards the end of his third consecutive day in the lead of the Vendée Globe, Loïck Peyron’s lead remains a static, but satisfactory 14 miles, the same margin he has maintained through since the early morning over Jean Le Cam (VM Materiaux).

Ericsson 4, not for the first time on this leg, have given the fleet the slip, making gains in the wind treacle of the Doldrums courtesy of a rain shower.

By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, their advantage over their Nordic cousins on E3, hovering under 10 miles for the past few days, was out to 49.

Ericsson 4 wins leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race, crossing the finish line at 05.54 GMT.

The goal posts are moving today for the leaders as they struggle to exit from the Doldrums and all the time they do, the chasing group are making a regular gain in better breezes.

The worst of the band of light, variable breezes in which the leading group of five are sailing is moving slightly south with them this morning.

In relative terms it has affected perennial leader Loïck Peyron first and the lead of Gitana Eighty has been more than halved.

Torben Grael and Ericsson 4 pulled off a Harry Houdini yesterday morning, escaping into a rain cloud and gaining 30 miles on the chasing pack. Grael has clearly done his 10,000 hours of practice – get off of my cloud.

Behind them, Ericsson 3, PUMA and Green Dragon all struggled as Delta Lloyd scrambled out of the pocket and threw their own Hail Mary - up to fourth, and very happy this morning.

The organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race have been monitoring the developments of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India overnight and the entire Volvo Ocean Race family’s thoughts are with the victims and their families during this terrible time.

The organisers have sought advice from their various security consultants, including Control Risks (csg.com), as to what actions, if any, the race should be taking now that the eight-strong racing fleet is just 700 nautical miles from the finish line of Leg 2 in Cochin, 1,000km from Mumbai.

It was smiles all round today when the Spanish Telefónica Blue team, led by Bouwe Bekking from the Netherlands, finished leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race in Cochin at 1237 GMT (1807 local time). 

The victory is all the more sweeter as the team had a tortuous 4450 nm leg from Cape Town, which took them 15 days, one hour, 17 minutes and 50 seconds (elapsed time 15:01:17:50), in which they were dogged by serious damage to their daggerboard. 

Team Russia continues to close in on the finish line off Cochin, India. The Russians are the last team still at sea in leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Overnight yesterday, the team became trapped in a fishing net, which resulted in them having to take down the mainsail to slow the boat in an effort to free the net from the keel. Overall, this cost this team at least two hours of sailing team.

Loïck Peyron, who had already fully endorsed his ranking as one of the popular favourites to win this Vendée Globe, reported to the Course Direction early this afternoon that he had dismasted at between 1300hrs and 1315hrs UTC.

The solo skipper, who had lead the pack down the Atlantic for 16 days, was down below in his Farr designed Gitana Eighty studying meteo information when he heard a very loud bang. When he got in deck his immediate fears were realized when he found his mast in three or four pieces.

Persistent Loïck Peyron passes into his second week at the head of the Vendée Globe pack, while the recovery of the only skipper to have broken the Gitana Eighty monopoly during that period, Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux), continues to scale back up the fleet, gaining two places this morning settling in eighth place at the moment.

It’s the day of reckoning for Jeremie Beyou on Delta Dore, who arrived at the town of Recife on the Brazilian coast early this morning.

Only now will Beyou be able to determine whether the damage to his rig is repairable, or whether his Vendée Globe is set to end in South America?

Delta Dore has suffered damage to two spreaders on the starboard side.

Ericsson 3 crossed the finish line off Cochin at 07:36 GMT (13:00 local time) to earn third place in leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The team will earn six points, taking them to 14.5 points overall. That's good enough for a short-term hold on third place. But as the boats behind finish, Ericsson 3 will slide down the table. How far they slide will depend upon the finishing order of the chasing pack.

Wind conditions are forecast to improve for Team Russia as they soldier on towards the finish line for leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The team is currently battling very light and variable winds, but the forecast is for the breeze to build as a Northeasterly funnels between the tip of the subcontinent and Sri Lanka. The stronger conditions, if they materialise, will help bring the team to the southern tip of India, where hopefully, they can utilise the heating effect of the land and the sea breezes that generate.

A little motivational spur, not that he was in need of any more mental drive, was provided yesterday by a prolonged call from the freezing wastes of the Indian Ocean to a Mike Golding/ Ecover/Vendee Globe themed activities morning at his five year old son’s Soren’s school in Warsash, Hampshire may have added an extra edge which propelled the British skipper into second place this morning.

The gates opened and they came in the thousands. Some two hours later the queues to get into the race village are still snaking for hundreds of metres down the road.

When the time came for the sailors to be paraded through the crowds and down to the pontoons, it made for one of the most spectacular departure ceremonies this event has ever seen.

The Indian people, while unfamiliar with this race and its history, have shown incredible enthusiasm on this first visit to Asia. They pressed deep into the passage walked by the sailors and, with arms waving and voices coarse, mobbed the crews and took pictures as they walked one-by-one to their boats.

PUMA still lead the main offshore group, as the sea breeze starts to fade – ten knots or less for everyone now. Ericsson 3 and Telefonica Blue have made a move further offshore, but it doesn’t seem to have paid, and they have slipped back.

Team Russia’s inshore route is giving them an advantage on the leaderboard, as they are closer to the course south, but it remains to be seen whether that converts into a real advantage on the water.

The whole fleet has tightened together, less than three miles between PUMA at the front, and Green Dragon at the back.

A solid lead for Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac) looks to be established as the fleet leaders prepare for a bigger storm which should challenge them with winds in excess of 40 knots.

While he doubled his overnight lead last night – despite having to back up several times to clear week off his rudder and keel – Dick’s gain on Golding is of the order of 10 miles today.

With just five miles separating the top three boats, there's not time to let your guard down at the front of the fleet. Ericsson 4 remains on top of the table at 16:00 GMT this afternoon, but Torben Grael and his men are just hanging on.

PUMA is just one mile back, while Telefonica Blue is hanging tough as well, five miles behind Ericsson 4. All three of the leading boats have tacked over the past three hours as the wind veers slightly to the right. It's a move that's been anticipated by Team Russia navigator Wouter Verbraak.

Delta Lloyd, trailing the rest of the fleet for much of this third leg from Cochin to Singapore, were dealt a savage blow today when they broke a hydraulic ram on their canting keel mechanism.

Navigator Matt Gregory notified Volvo Ocean Race headquarters at midday that they had developed a hydraulic oil leak and it was later discovered that there was extensive damage to carbon structure around the port side ram.

Overnight, the bulk of the fleet has passed the scoring waypoint and collected the valuable points on offer there.

Yesterday afternoon, Ericsson 4 led Telefonica Blue through the gate as the top two teams on the points leaderboard consolidated their position further. But behind, several battles were shaping up.

In the event, the fight for third between Ericsson 3 and PUMA was the closest battle on the water, and Anders Lewander's team just managed to fight off Kenny Read's il mostro to collect third place.

Anders Lewander, Ericsson 3, post-finish: “It’s been so enormously tough all of this leg…but it’s been really amazing. I’ve really enjoyed this leg because of the close tactics and the mix of conditions. It’s hard work but the close encounter and the whole situation on this leg has been really challenging.

“I must admit that at several occasions during this leg I truly believed we were able to win. I’m really proud and happy about our achievement…this short gybing and close encounters is really good racing. 

Team Russia today announced it has suspended racing upon arrival in Singapore at the end of Leg 3 due to insufficient funds to continue the campaign.

The team has been seeking sponsorship in recent months to secure enough financial support to continue to Qingdao and beyond.

However no sponsorship has been forthcoming and the team has no alternative but to suspend racing until further financial support can be secured.

There is a distinct lack of festive cheer for the Vendee Globe fleet. Only the chasing pack, Armel Le Cleac'h and Vincent Riou are being given just what they want, strong favourable winds at the moment.

The leaders will once again be slowed by contrary breezes forcing them to fight north to the New Zealand gate while Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) and Vincent Riou (PRB) are the only skippers to be feeling some festive cheer, given a temporary  boost: the favourable SW'ly winds for them in excess of 30 knots enables the Vendée Globe title holder Riou to be the fastest this evening covering 400 miles in 24 hours.

Michel Desjoyeaux says he has Christmas on ice, waiting until the weather is a little kinder, and taking the gift afforded by crossing the International Date Line yesterday, to pick and choose when he wants to open his bag of presents which the leader says has been winking at him for six weeks.

He has a lead of just less than 50 miles and is about 140 miles SSE of the west extension of the gate. Roland Jourdain is about 40 miles further to the north.

A Christmas cliffhanger, or simply the next episode of a long running drama? Well just a matter of hours ago it looked for all the world as if Bilou the pantomime villain was about to steal the lead as the group of four leading boats scale the New Zealand ice gate.

Michel Desjoyeaux, leader for nine days, had slowed to less than ten knots – did he have a problem, was he struggling in the rough upwind conditions?

The crew of PUMA Ocean Racing make repairs to their boat after sustaining serious structural damage in rough seas, for the second time in 24 hours.

Thousands of fans were screaming, the sailors were cheering and a state bordering on delirium swept the dock in Cochin. You would never have guessed that Team Russia were a distant last in leg two.

In fact, they were so far behind their nearest rival, Andreas Hanakamp's crew were the only boat still on the track and racing over the last 48 hours.

And all because a tactical gamble they hoped would trigger them from last to the podium failed spectacularly.

Further to our earlier report, the administrators of the VOR game have issued the following statement:

Due to conflicting information in our Leg 3 briefing we currently face a situation where a number of boats have taken the northern route over Sri Lanka instead of the southern route. In our explanation of the race rules, we did not prohibit this course and it is our error, for which we sincerely apologise.

After careful consideration and discussions with our player community, game officials and Volvo Ocean Race officials we have decided to restart the third leg of the Virtual Ocean Race Game.

Torrential rain offered a fitting end to the third leg for the beleaguered Delta Lloyd which, against the odds, crossed the finish line under sail to add a single point to their overall tally.

There was little to smile about as Roberto Bermudez de Castro's (or Chuny) drenched crew motored into the marina at Sentosa Cove having crossed the finish line in eighth place after a 1,950 nautical mile passage filled with disappointment.

At approximately 21:20 hrs (AEDT), 32 miles south east of Point Perpendicular, a mayday call was issued from the yacht Georgia, a Farr 53 owned by Graeme Ainley and John Williams from Sandringham Yacht Club, as a result of losing her rudder and taking on water.

Tim Cox, Race Committee Chairman liaised with the relevant authorities including AMSA, NSW Water Police and the CYCA Emergency Management Team to effect a rescue. Radio Relay Vessel JBW assisted with the rescue by communicating instructions from the Race Committee to nearby vessels. Telcoinabox Merit, being closest to the stricken yacht effected a rendezvous and stood by for further instructions.

Leg four of the race, predicted to be one of the toughest, claimed its first victim this morning when Green Dragon suffered a broken forestay.

Ian Walker and his crew were in fourth place and sailing in 17 knots of breeze upwind and a short, choppy sea, when the incident occurred.

Quick reactions by the crew, who rapidly eased sheets and secured halyards to the bow, prevented the loss of the mast and the team will continue to race to Qingdao under a makeshift rig.

As the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series approaches the quarter finals, New Zealand is up in arms at the offhand treatment meted out to it by the Italian Alinghi team, already hardly the yacht racing world's favourite AC squad.
 
The UK's Bob Fisher – one of the most respected yachting journalists in the world – penned a scathing article after Alinghi refused to race against Emirates New Zealand (ETNZ) team on Sunday 8 February.

Bouwe Bekking may have been first to pop the cork on his champagne, but Torben Grael had the broadest grin at the end of the Qingdao in-port race.

Maybe he was just relieved to get the race sailed. After all, two consecutive days of cancellations is hardly ideal preparation for a 12,300-nautical mile leg that begins in less than a week.

More likely he was pleased to have followed up a first place in the day’s opening race with a second in the final session. It was enough to give Ericsson 4 the day’s spoils and grow their lead at the top of the leaderboard by half a point, leaving them four ahead of Telefonica Blue, who finished second after a fourth and a first.

Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) had a close encounter with a cargo ship last night which he admits was a little too close for comfort as he sailed in busy shipping traffic off Cape Finisterre.

The British skipper emerged unscathed and is making fair speed across the Bay of Biscay now, trying to hike north in the contrary, Easterly winds as he makes for the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne where he is now expected Thursday.

Finally triumphing after a frustrating duel with the prolonged easterly headwinds in the Bay of Biscay, British solo skipper Steve White sailed his Open 60 Toe in the Water across the finish line in light NE’ly winds and brilliant sunshine at Les Sables d’Olonne’s South Nouch mark this morning/afternoon at 12:38:55 hours GMT to take a commendable eighth place in the Vendée Globe solo round the world race.
 
White averaged 10.78 knots on the water covering 28,197 miles. He sailed the 24,840 theoretical miles at an average speed of 9.49 knots.

Tired but triumphant, 109 days 00 hours, 36 minutes and 55 seconds after leaving Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday November 9th, White was greeted by his wife Kim, and his three sons Jason, 19, Isaac 9, and Euan 6. He is the fourth British skipper to complete the race. Of the 30 skippers who started from the Vendée town over three and a half months ago, 19 had to abandon.

Yesterday afternoon between 12h00 and 13h00 (GMT), the boom on Fondation Ocean Vital broke. Raphaël Dinelli was sailing in a thundery low with winds between 35 and 40 knots, leading to a very heavy, crossed swell.

When Raphael went to take in a reef, the boat was swept along on a wave and the boom broke on a shroud. Raphaël is currently heading north at 7.5 knots under staysail.

Rich Wilson’s last weekend at sea on his Vendée Globe looks set to be quick and relatively productive as he finally rides favourable winds back towards the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne which he should reach on Monday.

Downwind conditions of 20-25 conditions will see the American skipper gybing his way down the final  xx miles of the track making good speed to become only the second American ever to complete the Vendée Globe.  Wilson, 829 miles from the finish, has been making a VMG averaging just over eight knots and was 529 miles NWW of Cape Finisterre this afternoon making a course south of east. 

The traditional southerly route continues to punish Telefonica Blue as the team remains singled-out for an extra dose of upwind punishment. It's slow and frustrating, not least of all because the rest of the fleet has cracked the sheets, put up the spinnakers, and are roaring away.

"We have been battling in the south with lighter winds and a variable direction. Now we are having to watch the rest of the competition blasting along while we plod along upwind," complains Simon Fisher from the Blue boat. "For a while we were tacking every few hours, trying to make progress in the right direction. Perhaps my memory has faded in the last few years but this certainly isn't the Southern Ocean I remember! The Roaring Forties are more like the Boring Forties at the moment!"

The final cheque may still be in the post, but the last few days have been big pay days for Ericsson 3 navigator Aksel Magdahl.

Having banked plenty of leverage in breaking from the pack and heading north, soon after the scoring waypoint at 36 degrees south, Magdahl and the Nordics have been splashing out on a substantial lead ever since.

As the fleet negotiates the first ice gate and sets itself up for the second on the sleigh ride to Cape Horn, a split has developed and the gulf between the two factions is enormous.

With sistership Telefonica Blue at the head of the fleet, this morning the bad news from the limping Telefonica Black became worse when the team informed the Race Office it would be retiring from the leg to Qingdao.

At around 07:00 GMT yesterday, Telefonica Black turned back from the Luzon Strait after taking a hammering in the enraged sea state, whipped up by fierce winds and an opposing current. The team was concerned about a crack that had developed in the hull-deck joint. The initial plan was to find shelter in the lee of the Philippines, and examine the damage.

Not a blue Monday but very much a Blue Thursday for Bouwe Bekking and his crew – as Telefonica Blue sailed out of the the fog, licking at the wall of the Olympic harbour in Qingdao, to take first place in Leg 4.

The big red and black monster was the next to burst out of the gloom and surge across the line, PUMA and Ken Read just over an hour and a quarter behind in second. Torben Grael and Ericsson 4 then picked up six points for third to maintain their overall lead, leaving each of the top three just 3.5 points apart.

Michel Desjoyeaux is approaching the finish less than 20 miles away now and making over 10 knots and so should break the line around 1600-1630 hrs local time (1500hrs to 1530 GMT).

He had a tricky final evening at sea – light wind ridge of high pressure last night in the late evening, quicker this morning and now facing a backing SE’ly wind which is getting stronger as the day goes on, maybe up to 25 knots NE’ly at the finish, cold and quite unpleasant, and having to tack this afternoon.

Breton race rookie Armel Le Cléac'h crossed the finishing line of the Vendée Globe this morning (Saturday 7th February) at 08H41’35”GMT, after a net race time of 89 days 9 hours and 39 minutes 35 seconds of racing, taking into account the 11 hours redress given by the International Jury for his participation in the rescue of Jean Le Cam.

Brit Air completed the famous non stop solo round the world without assistance race in a 17-22-knot breeze cheered home by a spectator fleet out on the water enjoying the winter sunshine and braving the chill of the early morning.

Steve White is fighting the angles today as he beats upwind to try to make best time to the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne to secure eighth place in the Vendée Globe. White has 434 miles to sail this afternoon but is still slamming upwind into a nasty swell.

This afternoon he reported that Toe in the Water is making steady progress but he is just frustrated by the contrary breezes and the poor upwind angles which his boat makes.

His is a vicious cycle at the moment. Toe in the Water, a relatively older, wide boat with a fixed keel and sailplan more optimized for downwind sailing needs more breeze in order to sail to narrower angles to windward. But more wind means bigger seas and more crashing and bashing around.

Crossing the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne at 12h 43 19s GMT Rich Wilson completed the 24,840 mile Vendée Globe solo non stop round the world race in ninth place, completing a highly creditable result which is testament to his excellent seamanship skills, deep determination, careful planning and prudent execution, staying the distance to finish this incredible edition of the race which has claimed the highest attrition rate yet. Wilson finished 121 days 00 hours, 41 minutes and 19 seconds after leaving Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday November 9th. Wilson averaged 9.84 knots on the water covering 28,590 miles. He sailed the 24,840 theoretical miles at an average speed of 8.55 knots.

In terms of Ericsson 3’s monopoly on this leg, Magnus Olsson and his men haven’t quite gone from owning three hotels on Boardwalk to a one-bed apartment on Mediterranean Avenue, but the gaps to their closest pursuers – Ericsson 4 and PUMA – have shrunk.

With their progress to Cape Horn temporarily hitting the buffers at the second ice gate, the chasing duo have gained over 160 miles in the past 24 hours as the numbers in the DTLC (Distance To Leader Change) column on the leaderboard went from red to green.

By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, those numbers against the sistership (+109) and the shoe boat (+141) were behaving like traffic lights, green/red/green, as the Nordics led the charge south at 14-18 knots. Next stop, the Horn, 1,744 miles away for Ericsson 3.

Austrian sailors have made their mark in Olympic sailing in recent years, winning medals in the Tornado, windsurfer and Laser classes but Norbert Sedlacek set a new ocean racing record for landlocked nation when he became the first Austrian to complete a solo non stop round the world passage when he finished the epic sixth edition of the Vendée Globe in 11th place.

After 126 days 5 hrs 31 mins and 56 secs at sea Sedlacek crossed the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne at 17hrs 33 min 56 secs GMT, the delighted soloist - who started his sailing career on a six metres boat on the shallow waters of Vienna’s Neusiedler See as leisure diversion from his life as a tram driver - was simply ecstatic to finally complete the race among an excited flotilla of well wishers and spectator boats on a perfect sunny Sunday afternoon.

For long periods on this leg, hardened offshore veterans wondered whether they had stumbled upon the wrong postcode when they found cross-country skiing where a mogul run should have been. Even rookies cast doubt on the validity of legendary tales they’d heard. But 48 hours ago, the Southern Ocean awoke from its slumber and delivered 50-knot gusts and nine-metre seas. Welcome to the latitude with attitude – 40-60 degrees South.

When the Southern Ocean decided it was time to live up to its billing, it did so with all the force of a wrecking ball. The rookies doubted no longer, and the Whitbread/Volvo vets were in their element.

Ericsson 4’s Jules Salter, who is competing in his second Volvo having been aboard Pirates Of The Caribbean in the 2005-06 race, has, like the rest of the navigation brotherhood, been chasing a ride on a low pressure system towards Cape Horn.

After weeks spent chasing after the massive low pressure systems that parade across the depths of the Southern Ocean, Thursday morning sees the leading boats of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet in the grip of a high pressure centred to the northeast of the Falkland Islands.

The high, combined with the remnants of a weak low to the south, is throwing off moderate north to northwesterly winds off the coast of Argentina resulting in some tight angles and upwind work for the leading gang of four.

The Nordic crew aboard Ericsson 3 have consolidated their lead over the past 24 hours and set themselves up in a good protecting position - directly between their pursuers and the finish line. Classic stuff from the 'Yacht racing for dummies' book.

Angry seas, gusts of up to 45 knots, the fleet continues to endure harassment off the Philippine coast.

And, in keeping with the wanton bullying on this fourth leg, it was leader Telefonica Blue, relatively unscathed up till now, who filed the latest assault charge. "I thought we had seen it all, but what about this? We had a collision with an object and there is a chunk out of our bow. Luckily it is in our so-called crash bow, which is about 40cm thick, and especially designed with this in mind,” skipper Bouwe Bekking reported.

And now – the end is near – save for a shift to downwind mode for the sailing equivalent of a 100-metre dash to the finishing tape in Qingdao. Where’s Usain Bolt when you most need him?

By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, Telefonica Blue, the perennial leader, had 157 miles remaining and the spectre of PUMA and Ericsson 4 in the wing mirrors.

Bouwe Bekking’s men held a 29-mile advantage over PUMA while the daylight between Ken Read’s black cat and E4 was three miles.

After taking on second place yesterday Armel Le Cléac’h is now expected to finish in Les Sables d’Olonne between 1800hrs Thursday and 0600hrs Saturday morning but the Brit Air skipper has one big hurdle to negotiate before he can consider the prospects of his place on the second step of the podium after Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia).

Le Cléac’h is expecting winds of over 45 knots, gusting to 60 knots with a big, awkward cross seas to contend with, as he counts down the final 1000 miles to the finish line.

Relieved, delighted and pleasingly animated, happy to talk the media and public through his epic Vendee Globe. Marc Guillemot explains his race in all its facets.

 “The last week was very stressful and crossing the line was a great relief and the stress of the race all came out at that point.  There was the sporting element which interested me. The adventure wasn’t really my thing.  A lot happened.  Firstly a tactical mistake in the Canaries after a good start in the Bay of Biscay.  I had problems with my pilots.”

While the revellers who enjoyed the arrival of Steve White contemplate the typical ‘day after the night before’ effects, three skippers are still on course and making steady progress.

For a skipper who had been at sea for 109 days White prevailed well into the evening, his capacity for porridge and golden syrup replaced by a steady thirst for another golden liquid, enjoying the low key attention and spending time with all the well wishers who were keen to meet the eighth place finisher.
On target for a great ninth place Rich Wilson is trying to make his way round the labyrinthine weather pattern, one which a couple of days ago had the Great American III 400 miles closer to his home in Boston than he was to the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne and nearly 500 miles west of the mean course taken by earlier finishers.

While Raphael Dinelli has not had to look for problems, breaking his boom yesterday and then last night sustaining what is believed to be a cracked rib, Rich Wilson has finally managed to bring his bow east on Great American III and head more directly towards Les Sables d’Olonne

Dinelli is understood to be in some pain but is continuing to work Fondation Océan Vital, making some 7.4 knots just slightly west of north this afternoon. After breaking his boom on Monday, the Sablais skipper was on deck last night, looking out for a nearby ship which had been spotted on his Active Echo tracking system. Dinelli was knocked backwards by a rogue wave, landing on the deck, and twisting awkwardly as he fell.

If Raphael Dinelli had a sense of déjà vu when he crossed the finish line of the Vendée Globe race this afternoon it would be entirely understandable. Four years ago he completed the race 125 days after leaving his home port. Now, again today, his race round the globe on the same boat has taken him 125 days, 2 hours, 32 minutes and 24 seconds

After arriving back to his local bay this morning Dinelli crossed the finish line at 14 34 24 hrs GMT this afternoon. The early morning mist had long since cleared and he was treated to light winds and pleasant sunshine to finally breach the finish line at the Nouch South mark. Dinelli sailed 28,140 miles at an average of 9.37 knots.  The theoretical distance was covered at 8.23 knots.

In biblical terms, 40 days and 40 nights has many connotations. But in the final throes of this 12,300-mile Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09, it means ravenous men with 40-day growths enduring sailing’s equivalent of purgatory.

And, as has been the case for the past week, talk on board is about last suppers as food stocks dwindle and morale dips.

So how far off is redemption? At the current rate of progress, Cristo Redentor should come into view for Ericsson 3 tomorrow afternoon – day 40. When, precisely, is anybody’s guess, which is a relief for those of us with money invested in the Race HQ sweepstake.

Telefonica shore boss Campbell Field has revealed that discussions are underway to decide whether the Blue team should take a calculated gamble on new rudders.

The move would cost Bouwe Bekking’s title-chasing crew three points, but after positive feedback from the Telefonica Black team, who adopted the strategy ahead of leg four, the syndicate is weighing up the merits of the swap.

“It could potentially happen for the next leg,” Field said. “There are meetings and briefings happening now. The conclusion might be let’s leave it until after the in-port race (on February 7). I’m prepared for any eventuality. They could make the decision at any point really; it’s a pretty straightforward and quick swap.”

Ericsson 3 is being moved to the port of Hualien in Taiwan to undergo major repairs to its bow structure, the first step in the team’s gamble to finish Leg 4 and be on the start line in Qingdao for Leg 5 to Rio.

Loaded onto a 100ft steel barge and towed by a Taiwanese tugboat, the damaged boat left the port of Keelung, where the team had pulled in after suffering major structural damage and began taking on water during Leg 4.

There have been some drastic deficit cuts on this leg and chief among those wielding the axe are Bouwe Bekking's men on Telefonica Blue.

Granted they have been provided with insurance cover by the Doldrums compression, and there is the small matter of a leverage disadvantage as the fleet approach Fiji, but don’t let the small print get in the way of a stunning comeback – on the leaderboard at least.

The facts are that the Blue boat set off 189 miles after the fleet in Qingdao and had fallen as far adrift as 300 miles to the leaders.

What started out several days ago as a typical downhill slog to the Southern Ocean has been turned into a navigational lottery by prevailing weather systems which have no respect for history and tradition. Where we were expecting Franz Klammer, we got Sir Edmund Hillary.

You can picture the piles of shredded routing charts gathering by the navigation stations on board.

While heading south from the scoring waypoint at latitude 36 degrees was always the most viable option, the fleet has meandered in all manner of directions in the past 48 hours.

The Nordic crew on Ericsson 3 have taken the old expression 'make hay while the sun shines' to heart over the past day. The team is roaring up the South Atlantic, frantically adding miles to their lead in anticipation of a possible park-up before the finish line in Rio.

"We have made big gains the last 24 hours but it is far from a straight highway to the finish," read the report filed this afternoon by Gustav Morin aboard the leg leader.

"There are still many things that can go wrong and the next thing to worry about is a high pressure that we will soon reach. And now it looks like it will be very light when we get closer to Rio, which also gives the others an opportunity to catch up."

"This close," said Ian Walker, looking at a one-inch gap between his thumb and forefinger. "We were this close to making the call."

But like three other boats in this fleet of five, they didn't. Ericsson 3 were the only team to head east at the 36-degree south scoring gate and it was the move that won them the longest leg in the history of the race.

Green Dragon, meanwhile, went south with the rest of the pack and ultimately lost the drag race across the Southern Ocean, the victims of a boat speed deficit that Walker rated at about "10%".

When they arrived this afternoon, fourth place theirs after 42 days, 13 hours and 57 minutes of racing, the frustration at that decision was not far from the surface.

"What a result," screamed Wouter Verbraak. "Unbelievable."

The new era of Team Delta Lloyd was welcomed with a maiden podium finish, but Bouwe Bekking had the biggest grin at the end of the 'Light In-Port Race' in Rio de Janeiro today.

His Telefonica Blue team were seemingly out of the running when they passed the first turning mark in fourth place, 27 seconds off PUMA's well-earned lead.

But, having chosen the left-hand side of the track (looking upwind) on the downwind run, they profited from a wind shift and stormed to the front of the fleet.

There has been so much lane hopping and driving under the influence among the fleet that sooner or later there is going to be a tap on the shoulder from the local traffic cops.

The main offender has been Delta Lloyd. At least navigator Wouter Verbraak was prepared to offer up a full confession for the boat’s crooked miles long before the booze bus arrives.

"Following our wallowing tracks, one might think that we have supplemented our freeze-dried food with some caipirinhas from Brazil,” his statement read this morning.

At a press conference being held at their HQ in Gosport this morning, the organisers of the tri-services adventurous sail training Exercise TRANSGLOBE, the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC), have announced that the television personality NICK KNOWLES has signed up as an Ambassador to the 12-month round-the-world voyage and that Nick will officially start this epic adventure, that sees three 67ft steel-hulled Challenge yachts set off from Portsmouth, at 1300hrs on Saturday 11th July 2009.

The yachts named Adventure, Challenger and Discoverer are crewed by Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force personnel representing all ranks, ages and gender, who are undertaking an adventurous sail training exercise that will circumnavigate the globe under the banner Exercise TRANSGLOBE.  There are 13 stages being sailed with crew changes on most legs, allowing over 500 service personnel, some of whom have recently returned from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, to experience the thrills, spills and chills of ocean sailing.

It may be early days but Bouwe Bekking and his crew aboard Telefonica Blue have thrown down the gauntlet to their rivals on Leg 7 from Boston to Galway.

Thick fog, a shifty 10-12 knot breeze, and a slight postponement after the starting gun misfired, made for an eventful start. The sudden appearance of a massive oil tanker also hampered the progress of the fleet.

The start included a windward-leeward lap of Boston's inner harbour. Once underway a fog shrouded the turning mark at the eastern end of the start course. The tanker – the Nor’easter – muscled into the harbour and delayed Delta Lloyd’s rounding of the mark.

In the morning report we told you how Ericsson 3 was able to bank miles over the past 24 hours, extending their lead over their stablemates on Ericsson 4 and PUMA. While Friday had been kind to the NOrdic crew, it always seemed as if they'd need to spend some of those banked miles, and that has come to pass today.

The second high pressure system blocking the route to Rio de Janeiro has come into play for Magnus Olsson's team today, and slowed them down. Both Ericsson 4 and PUMA have been able to close the gap yet again, with Ericsson 4 now just 86 miles behind. That's still a healthy margin for the Nordic crew, but certainly less comfortable than what they had just 12 hours ago - Ericsson 4 has gained 40 miles over that span.

The International Jury has denied the Telefonica Blue claim for redress.

The Jury convened in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday afternoon to hear the case. Within two hours, they came back to tell Telefonica Blue its claim had been denied.

"(I'm) a little bit disappointed...They dismissed the protest, which is unfortunate for us and fortunate for the race committee and race authorities," said Bouwe Bekking, skipper of Telefonica Blue. "That's it, that's how yacht racing is. No bad feelings, we gave it our best shot."

Temperatures on board are dropping and the pressure is rising with the fleet closing in on Boston. As the leaders leave the warm waters of the Gulf Stream behind, the sea temperature has plummeted.

But relief is in sight. In Boston, as the race village opens to the public today, the warm spring afternoon is forecast to approach the historical record high for the day.

Out on the race track, some 300 miles away, and as reported by Mark Chisnell in this morning's TEN ZULU, the leaders have been fighting through a ridge of high pressure for most of the day. Their progress has been slowed dramatically by the light conditions. The final miles to Boston will be hard-earned.

Telefonica Blue were badly caught out by the constant tide and wind shifts near the exclusion zone in the Dover Strait. Skipper Bouwe Bekking was not amused.

"We had an absolutely shocking last 24 hours, were just nothing worked out and losing a lot of miles,” he said.

"We have been battling hard, but no gains to be made. We came very close to PUMA and Delta Lloyd near the Dover Strait, but they got a puff first and extended again. This morning the wind swung from the NE into the SW, meaning we sailed right into the old swell, doing about 15-20 knots of boat speed. Boat breaking stuff.”

In one of the closest finishes in the race to date, Ericsson 4 held off the recently resurgent PUMA and Green Dragon teams to win Leg 8, and claim their third consecutive leg win and fifth in the race so far. The victory puts Ericsson 4 in an all but unassailable position on the leaderboard.

"We're very close to winning the race," admitted Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael. "But we're not there yet."

His team now holds a 15-point lead with just three scoring opportunities left (for a maximum 20 points) before the finish in St. Petersburg.

Fernando's Echavarri's Telefonica Black, which burst out of the starting blocks on Saturday afternoon, will sail the leg into Boston one man short.

Bowman Michael Pammenter has injured his foot, and was taken back to the Marina da Gloria by a support boat. Under the race rules, the team cannot replace him during this leg. Upon arrival at the marina, Pammenter was transferred to hospital to have his leg and foot examined.

"I had the jib sheet wrapped around my foot when we went into a tack and I got flipped into the rig," he said, describing how it occured. "I got my foot stuck between the mast and the jib sheet basically. It's really painful but I've had some painkillers so it's calmed down a lot, but there's a lot of swelling so we thought it would be safer if I got off the boat and got it checked out properly. Hopefully I'll be back for the next leg.

Not fast but definitely furious, the two Boston in-port races threw up no shortage of exciting moments.

Telefonica Black got snared in a lobster pot, Green Dragon's Justin Slattery was flung around the foredeck, and three teams crossed the start line early in the second race.

Added to Green Dragon's penalty turn, Ericsson 3's inshore resurgence and Telefonica Blue's sheer dominance in light winds, it was quite a spectacle. And that's before considering the implications of Delta Lloyd's upward trajectory.

In short, the day belonged to Telefonica Blue. They were already the most successful inshore team, claiming two wins, one second and a third from the four in-port sessions before today. This afternoon, in the light breezes their boat loves most, they led from start to finish in both races with more than a minute to spare at the end of each one.

The crew of Ericsson 4 do not often lend themselves to huge displays of emotion, but the early hours of this morning saw quite an exception.

"Fantastic," Jules Salter said. "I've been to Ireland before so I'm not surprised, but this is fantastic."

"This is great," added skipper Torben Grael.

"Awesome," concluded Dave Endean.

It would be easy to assume they were talking about the sailing, their words coming just moments after Ericsson 4 increased their stranglehold on this event with a leg seven win. But they weren't.

The Galway in-port races were settled on the first beat of the second race, and so the Play of the Day belonged to a PUMA team taking their first ever win in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race. It was all about something that we haven't really talked about much in this in-port race series so far, and yet it can often dominate both one design and match racing - holding a lane.

Holding a lane refers to the boat speed race that develops straight off the start line. Most of the fleet will always start on starboard tack, all going in the same direction, and it is essential to hold a place in this line-up of boats as they sail up the first leg.

So the only thing that matters off the start line is performance relative to the boats either side - if one of them has even a slight edge, they will eventually start to affect the wind in the sails of the boat in the middle. Once that happens, the only escape is to tack, and once tactics are dictated to you, the race gets a whole lot harder.

Telefonica Blue ran aground on a rock shortly after the start of Leg 9 in Marstrand and has since served a two-hour penalty for suspending racing.

In fact, it took the crew two hours to free the stricken boat with the help of pliot vessels and support craft.

Bouwe Bekking and his men have returned to Marstrand to have the boat hauled out for a full assessment of the damage.

Bekking, who's boat suffered a similar mishap at the start of Leg 5 out of Qingdao, was understandably crestfallen by the setback. He explained what happened.

On Friday 4th September in the Hyères Harbour, the French tri-foiler l'Hydroptère claimed a new world sailing speed record over 500 meters with an average speed of 51.36 knots.

In doing so, l'Hydroptère replaces kitesurfer Alex Caizergues' previous record of 50.57 knots set in Namibia last year.

Watch the video footage here in our features section.

Skipper Alain Thébault and his crew also smashed the speed record over one nautical mile, increasing it from 43.09 knots to 48.72 knots.

Team Finland has taken line honours in Race 2 from La Rochelle to Rio de Janeiro. Crossing the line at 16:00:36 local time (18:00:36 GMT) their latest victory makes it two out of two for the Scandinavian entry. Spirit of Australia has secured second place crossing the finish line at 22:25:42 local time just six hours behind Team Finland.

“Race 2 was a very balanced and professional performance from Team Finland,” says skipper Eero Lehtinen. “Crew work has been way above my expectations and we are well ahead of the game. Our watch leaders Minke Docter and Emil Vartiainen have been great and their assistants Barry Anderson and Andy Philips never took their eyes off the ball.

Don McIntyre, the Australian adventurer and solo round the world sailor is to host a reunion of fellow McIntyre/Macintyre clan members on Skye over the weekend 14-15th November.

"I would like to share a few drams with any of my namesakes who also have links with the Hebridean Island, and trace as many direct family members as I can across Scotland." says Don, whose grandparents, Thomas and Mary McIntyre emigrated to Australia shortly after their marriage at Larbert, Stirling on June 28th 1901.

Next April, Don is to lead a 4,000 mile expedition in an open boat across the Pacific to re-enact the voyage by Capt William Bligh following the mutiny on HMS Bounty 220 years ago. 

A 10 knot northerly breeze started proceedings at 1430 (GMT +1) this afternoon, as the 14 strong IMOCA fleet set sail on the ninth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre.

It was a tight start off the line with Aviva leading the fleet as they headed out, HUGO BOSS made up ground after crossing the line in eighth. Shortly after the start the fleet split into two packs east to west. HUGO BOSS headed out east alongside the other Finot designed Open 60 Brit Air. The first poll will be at 1500 GMT, with four hourly positions reports after that at www.jacques-vabre.com/en

They have seen wind, rain, hail, sleet and freezing cold winds and that is before they left the confines of Le Havre. The skippers have been counting down the final days to the start of the 4,720 mile Transat Jacques Vabre Race.

Co-skipper of Actual is brought ashore

Yves Blévec co-skipper of the capsized trimaran Actual has been brought ashore. He is has a slight wound to his hand and has had a basic medical check up from the SMUR ambulance service.

Jean Le Cam has remained with the boat. The plan is to release the rig and bring it back separately. The boat remains on station and the objective is to tow it back to port.

Adventure has had trouble with her Satcom so Disco has been providing the daily weather update to all 3 yachts. 

Finally, when Challenger was roughed up by the weather bomb, tremendous moral support was given between the 3 skippers in their daily HF calls while Challenger made good the damage to her sails. 

If you could distil, bottle and sell the sense of teams working within teams, you would be rich beyond the wildest dreams of man.

A progressive let up in the conditions for the Transat Jacques Vabre crews presents opportunities to gain some respite but also to press on hard, keeping on top of the changeable breezes, as the seas drop slightly.

IMOCA Open 60 fleet leader Seb Josse on BT spoke this morning of the difficult swell dropping back from six and a half metres to four metres and a more useful wind on 20-25 knots which he expects to drop a little further to 15-20 knots.

The night on BT may have been uncomfortable and tiring, better than the preceding one, but Josse and Jeff Curzon still hold a steady lead of just over 12 miles over Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier on Safran.

As Safran lead across their theoretical half way point of this Transat Jacques Vabre from Le Havre to Costa Rica and life has become considerably easier for the IMOCA Open 60 crews and the remaining Multi50 duos, the days of sunshine and trade winds sailing may be pleasant but the pace is still intense right down the fleets, seeking every small gain, trimming more accurately and hand steering as long as possible.

Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier top the IMOCA Open 60 standings by just 23.3 miles this morning, with Kito de Pavant and Francois Gabart on Groupe Bel gaining ten miles since the same time yesterday morning. A third of their lead devoured, Guillemot remarked yesterday that his preference is normally to do the hunting rather than be hunted.

Although the duo had battled through an horrendous Atlantic storm, during which they took the lead of the 14 boat IMOCA Open 60 class back on Thursday 12th November, the hard bitten skipper from La Trinité confirmed on the dockside that the worst part of their race was the final 24 hours.

Because both they and their nearest rivals Groupe Bel (Kito de Pavant and François Gabart), who were just 90 miles behind, had chosen to go in ‘stealth' mode – during which their positions are no longer publically broadcast – he spent the final miles fighting through unpredictable light winds, squalls and shifting breezes as they closed to the Costa Rica coast through the night, being eaten up by worry that De Pavant and Gabart might still catch them with their ‘Laughing Cow' logo'd, an identical design from VPLP/Verdier partnership.

Champagne sailing conditions have made the 2009 Little Britain Challenge Cup (LBBC) a regatta to remember with a three day race programme filled with steady sunshine and north north westerly winds.

Since the event’s inception in 1988, Europe’s largest annual construction industry regatta has raised over £1m for sailing charities to help disadvantaged or disabled people to experience the world of sailing. This track record of fundraising was continued this weekend, with just under £20,000 raised during the three day event. This sum is likely to rise to around £50,000 once profits from the event have been taken into account.

On a race which has a recent history of dealing close, tight finishes, the final miles of the Transat Jacques Vabre can be the most nerve racking.

The finish line is all but in sight, the miles counting down with a pleasing whirr, but for Safran's Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier - who are seeking to convert the lead they have held for nine days - they still have no shortage of pressure, and it is likely to stay heaped upon them until the end.

And with less than 450 miles to go in this ninth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre, the gap back from Safran to Kito de Pavant and François Gabart on Groupe Bel is just over 70 miles.

Hull & Humber has resumed racing in Leg 3 of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race.

When the boat slipped from Royal Cape Yacht Club at 9.20am local time (0720 GMT) it was the moment the crew had been waiting for after being confined to port since their start day collision with Cork, Ireland which forced them to return to harbour to make repairs.

Teams of boat builders from Action Yachting at RCYC have been working around the clock, first to cut away the damaged section of the hull, then to replace it, building up the layers of fibre glass and high density foam that make up the shell of the boat.

Carpenters took over on Sunday to complete the work on the interior and to install a new toe rail along the edge of the deck before the final fixtures and fittings were put into place by the Clipper maintenance team.

Geoff Holt has set out to become the first quadriplegic yachtsman to cross the Atlantic. The 42 year old father became the first disabled yachtsman to sail around Great Britain in 2007 and has now departed Lanzarote on his latest challenge, headed for Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

Just before he departed Geoff commented, 'It feels good to finally be under way and off on my journey across the Atlantic. The weeks and months of planning are over and now I am facing 2700 miles at sea. I am excited about what lies ahead but naturally there are nerves too. I am looking forward to returning to the beach in Tortola that I left in an ambulance 25 years ago. Back then I thought I would never sail again and now I will be returning in command of my own vessel.'

The past few weeks have been the icing on the cake in an already brilliant year for Sailing Logic, the Southampton-based sail training company that was recently awarded the RORC (Royal Ocean Racing Club) ‘Yacht of the Year’ 2009 Award for their Reflex 38 Puma Logic racing campaign.

Sailing Logic crews have also just secured the 1st and 2nd podium positions in IRC 1 in the Garmin Hamble Winter Series with Puma Logic and their other Reflex, Jaguar Logic.

The team behind Sailing Logic has spent the past six years building the business and its reputation to become the most successful offshore race charter company in the United Kingdom. 

Standings after five legs

After consideration of the damage incurred in the Southern Ocean on Leg 4 and the completion of the relatively benign Leg 5, the overall standings are:

1st  RAF with 12 points
2nd Army with 16 points
3rd RN with 19 points

Sqn Ldr Neil Cottrell, Exercise TRANSGLOBE Project Team Leader sums up the Exercise thus far:

Little Zephyr Hamilton Elevators is battling the elements in her efforts to become the smallest boat since Zeus II to win the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Should James Connell and Alex Brandon’s Sea Nymph 33 be successful in her bid to win the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s (CYCA) famous 628 nautical mile race, she will be the smallest yacht since 1981, when Sydneysider Jim Dunstan sailed his Currawong 30 Zeus II to victory in the corrected time of 3 days 19 hours 25 minutes 59 seconds.

Connell needs to cross the finish line in Hobart’s Derwent River by 1.31am tomorrow (Friday) morning. As of 5.00pm this evening, Zephyr Hamilton Elevators is due to finish at 11.46pm this evening.

A 21-year old RAF Officer Cadet student, Gemma Lamont, who hails from Scotland, has done ‘a bit of dinghy sailing and some yachting’ during her service with the RAF, but nothing remotely significant compared to her latest sailing challenge on Exercise TRANSGLOBE.  Gemma has signed up as crew on board the RAF yacht, HMSTV Discoverer, to sail one of the longest legs during TRANSGLOBE, from Cape Town to Perth, a distance of 5,000nm, scheduled to depart Cape Town on 5th October.

Gemma (or ‘Wee Gemz’ as she is also known) needn’t worry though. She is in excellent and very experienced hands as one of her fellow crew members is retired Air Marshal Sir Graham Anthony ‘Dusty’ Miller KBE who is now a member of the Volunteer Reserves. Another is Sqn Ldr Neil Cottrell, the TRANSGLOBE Project Officer and the mastermind behind this extraordinary adventure training exercise as well as being Discoverer’s 1st Mate on this leg.  Dusty Miller, who lives with his family in Cheltenham, has already sailed over 5,000nm and completed 16 service expeditions during the course of his 41 years service in the RAF.

"What matters most is that we all get to Fremantle (and ultimately Gosport) safely and do so in the spirit and manner of single-Service and tri-Service teamwork envisaged by the architects of Exercise Transglobe.  So far, we are scoring exceptionally well in that area."

The three yachts representing the Navy (HMSTV Adventurer), Army (HMSTV Challenger) and RAF (HMSTV Discoverer) taking part in Leg 4 of Exercise TRANSGLOBE have around 2,000 nm to go to reach Perth, over half way through the toughest stretch so far for the TRANSGLOBE fleet.

With all eight entries now confirmed, this years Budget Marine Match Racing Cup at the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta is set to establish itself firmly on the ladder as one of key match racing events in the Caribbean.

As well as entries received from Peter Isler, Gavin Brady, and Peter Holmberg three of the worlds most respected match racing skippers theres some other interesting names in melting pot wholl be racing for cash prizes totalling $10,000 at this ISAF-sanctioned Grade 5 event, including Colin Rathbun, Eugeniy Nikiforov, Jakub Pawluk, Chris Nesbitt and Marc Fitzgerald.

The racing, to be held on Tuesday 2 March during the run-up to St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, will be based on a round-robin format and sailed in Lagoon Sailboat Rentals fleet of six Jeanneau SunFast 20s, without spinnakers.

The general consensus amongst the teams today is the need to focus and get back into the routine of offshore racing following an exceptional stopover in Singapore.

"It takes time to settle in after a long stop over and for people to find their sea legs again," explains Edinburgh Inspiring Capital's skipper, Matt Pike. "But, after a great stop in Singapore, we left in perfect conditions - a good north easterly breeze allowing us to hold full canvas as we headed out into the South China Sea.

A busy night of shipping and total concentration to hold us hard against the wind left little doubt we were back racing! The early morning positions showed it had been a good night's work and the fleet was tightly packed.

With three months to go to the 10th edition of the biennial Rolex Commodores’ Cup, the international fleet has every prospect of being one of the more exotic in recent events. A noteworthy success in these straightened times.

The headline foreign contingent is perhaps South Africa, participating at the regatta for the first time. Hong Kong has confirmed it will be back following its happy venture in 2008.

The captain of the ironically named yacht ShockWave 5 didn't have a lifejacket on when swept overboard in last weekend's tragic accident during the 92 mile Flinders Island Race in south-east Australia.

Matt Pearce, a survivor, described 'a set of about four waves in a row that were solid green water, sort of two metres over the top of the boat. When we turned around, he was gone'.

International Sailing Federation (ISAF) 'fundamental' racing rules state that 'each competitor is individually responsible for wearing a personal flotation device adequate for the condition'.

However, in the ISAF Offshore Special Regulations Handbook, it states that lifejackets and harnesses are to be worn between the hours of sunset and sunrise, the time of the ShockWave accident.

In the Clipper 09-10 Team Finland has two reasons to celebrate today. Not only is it the 92nd anniversary of Finland's Declaration of Independence from Russia, but the team has also managed to take the lead from Spirit of Australia.

'Team Finland is now in tip top shape after a very busy night,' says watch leader Emil Vartiainen. 'All our evolutions went very well and the crew had the silhouette of Spirit of Australia in their minds the whole time. As we got them in our sights again this morning they were behind us - a brilliant extra kick for our celebrations of Finland's Independence Day!'

This morning representatives from seven of the eight maxis lining up for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart became mini boat skippers, racing two feet long model boats in the inaugural Little Boat Challenge.

The event, held in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia marina, was a preview to tomorrow’s SOLAS Big Boat Challenge and the highly anticipated Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours contest which will play out for real in a week and a half.

Neville Crichton’s Alfa Romeo, represented by helmsman Erle Williams, won the best of three series with two wins while Wild Oats XI’s skipper Mark Richards picked up one victory.

Following their hero’s welcome and an unforgettable stopover in the Shandong provincial city of Qingdao, China, the teams competing in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race were treated to a spectacular send off for Race 7 of the 35,000-mile global challenge to San Francisco.

As the brave sailors manned their boats and prepared to do battle with the largest ocean on the planet, thousands lined the breakwater of the Olympic Sailing Centre to send them on their way. A 15-knot breeze from the north gave a gentle introduction to the 5,680-mile race to California, USA, the longest leg in the history of the Clipper Race.

The Island Sailing Club has now processed just over 1,470 entries and amongst some of the most recent it is interesting to note that, for one reason or another, a fair few have an association with flying. We’re also starting to see some of the more high profile entries coming in now, along with one or two speed machines. There’s also a brilliant turnout of young sailing talent signing up.

Skipper Graham Tourell will be helming Artemis Ocean Racing, an Imoca 60. Built in 2008 the boat has also competed in the Vendée Globe and 2009 Transat Jacques Vabres. Open 60s are one of the fastest boats in sailing - built in carbon fibre using the latest hi-tech structures, they are designed to be as light as possible for speed’s sake, but strong enough to withstand the worst the seas can throw at them.

The 22:00 GMT positions are in and what a race we have. Ericsson 4 has moved to the top of the leaderboard, but Telefonica Blue is further East.

It might be the last leg, but it doesn't appear as though anyone on that race course is willing to concede an inch.

Ericsson 3's Gustav Morin checked in about 45 minutes ago and said exactly that:

"Again we have a very intense race going on. We still have everyone more ore less in sight but the big fight has since the start been between PUMA, Telefonica Blue, Ericsson 4 and us.

After nine months and nearly 40,000 nautical miles of racing, this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race has come to a close. We've seen great racing, close finishes, crews hired and fired, friendships forged, acts of bravery and sportsmanship, all in the cauldron of one of the toughest endeavours left on the planet.

On Sunday night in St. Petersburg, the final prizegiving was an opportunity to remember and celebrate all that has happened on this magnificent adventure.

It was an emotional evening, with all of the teams, their families and friends finally able to truly relax after living in the pressure-cooker of the past nine months. It was also time to say goodbye, with most of the teams disbanding as early as Monday, airplane tickets taking them to all corners of the globe already in hand, booked months in advance.

Barton Marine, one of the leading manufacturers of deck hardware joined forces with distributor Navimo to triumph in the 5th Marine Industry Sailing Regatta at the Solent on the 15th of July 2009. The joint team took part in the annual competition which helps raise money for the John Merricks Sailing Trust.

The John Merrick's Trust, which gives young people financial support in order to help them reach the top of sailing, has received over £14,000 in fundraising from the regatta.

With just under 40 days to the start of the Rolex Fastnet on Sunday, 9 August, the 300 registered crews are hard at work completing their qualification miles and other prerequisites. The 608 nautical-mile offshore classic has a fearsome reputation – not always lived up to – but one which deserves respect by all involved; especially in the year marking the thirtieth anniversary of the saddest chapter in the race’s illustrious history.

The fleet is in excellent shape. With participants from 16 different nations on the start-line, it will be an international gathering of the yacht-racing fraternity. The British and French make up the bulk of the fleet, but entries have been received from Hong Kong, Australia and the USA too, proving the lure of the Rolex Fastnet still crosses the oceans as it did in its earliest days.

A sound guide to the success of any yacht race is when the entry limit is exceeded. Once again the Royal Ocean Racing Club has managed this with their biennial flagship event, the Rolex Fastnet Race, where the 300 boat maximum has been comfortably reached.

The make-up of this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race fleet is one of the most international ever with entries from 16 countries. While the UK and France comprise the majority, this year the line-up includes boats from as far afield as Australia, with the much-travelled Rolex Sydney Hobart entrant Berrimilla 2, sailed by Alex Whitworth and Peter Crozier, to the Chilean Class 40, Desafio Cabo de Hornos, recently second round the world in the Portimao Global Ocean Race, to Karl Kwok’s Beau Geste from Hong Kong.

Clear skies, plenty of sun and westerly Force 3-4, building to 5 during the mid afternoon provided stellar conditions for day two of Cowes Week.

Commenting about the forecast before the first start, Stuart Quarrie (CEO, Cowes Week Ltd) said: "It's going to be a lovely sunny day but again the wind is giving the course-setters a tough task - it will gradually back through 90 degrees, but it's impossible for the forecasters to pinpoint the exact timing of the changes in direction."

The penultimate day of Cowes Week saw a return of the sun, and numerous closely-fought battles across a wide range of fleets.

By this morning the weather front that brought rain and light airs to the race area over the previous couple of days had moved further east, bringing a north-westerly airflow that started as a promising 10-13 knots. The situation remained complex, however, with the possibility of further showers that could mess with the wind as on the two previous days. An additional complication was the possibility of a thermal influence, with a swing to a south-westerly direction later in the day.

‘FLYING’ DOWN TO RIO

HMSTV Challenger (Army), skippered by Tony Houghton, TA, currently leads the TRANSGLOBE fleet on Leg 2, followed by HMSTV Discoverer (RAF), skippered by Jules Yeardley, a JSATSC staff skipper and HMSTV Adventure (Navy), skippered by Phil Brown, also a JSATSC staff skipper. All yachts are sailing well off the coast of Nouadhibou in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

These three 67ft-steel hulled yachts, with their new skippers and crews on board, departed from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands on 5th August to start the second stage of the 13-leg Exercise TRANSGLOBE, a major Tri-Service Adventurous Sail Training Exercise open to all UK service personnel, Regular and Reserve.

Property developer Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard secured a second consecutive line honours victory in the Rolex Fastnet Race in the early hours of this morning. With the mixed conditions the 100ft super-maxi was considerably behind the course record she set two years ago. Arriving at the Plymouth breakwater finish line at 00:09:36 GMT, her elapsed time on this occasion was 2 days 11 hours 9 minutes and 36 seconds, compared to 1 day 20 hours 18 minutes and 53 seconds in 2007.

“It was a great race,” commented Slade. “It is always nice to have a race where there are no breakages or damage. We didn’t get into any difficult situations. We just wanted to get around fast and competently. All in all we are delighted to be here, second time running, back to back victories in this great race. A huge thanks to the RORC, our sponsors ICAP and Rolex for yet again taking an interest in yachting.”

2009 is set to be a classic year for the regatta, with strong support for the older classes that have formed the backbone of the event for many years and the 98-year-old XOD regaining its old position as the most numerous class, mustering 80 entries.

A weak but wide occluded front which moved over the Solent from 0900 onwards gave rain for competitors and spectators alike, while a shifty Force 3-4 forecast to veer erratically by 90 degrees over the day promised to be challenging for course setters and competitors.

Dorset coast’s overnight parking lot

Overnight conditions in the Rolex Fastnet Race have ranged from tricky to impossible. While this morning at the 0600 update, Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard was approaching Lizard Point, the bulk of the 300 strong fleet is now past Portland Bill, the headland to seaward of the 2012 Olympic sailing venue, and were halfway across Lyme Bay bound for the next significant headland, Start Point.

For Slade’s mighty 100ft long supermaxi, the night has been one of mixed fortunes, her speed ranging from relative standstill – 4 knots against the tide midway across Lyme Bay at 2300 – to considerable pace, 26.5 knots at 0500.

Bound for the Rock

After a tricky first night at sea, the mid-fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race have experienced a rainy grey day at sea as they slog upwind westward along the English south coast.

As expected the big boats have broken away with Mike Slade’s 100-foot supermaxi ICAP Leopard, rounding Land’s End at around 0930 GMT and by 1500 she was halfway to the Fastnet Rock turning mark.

17 year-old British sailor Mike Perham is now within a day of becoming the youngest person to sail single-handed around the world. He now expects his 50ft yacht Totallymoney.com  to reach the Lizard line marking the start and finish point of his 30,000 mile record-setting odyssey between 08:30 and 09:30 local Thursday morning - two months inside the current record.

Overnight, the teenager from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire has had to cope with the tail-end effects of Hurricane Bill which has now split into two distinct low pressure systems. The huge seas now running in the Western Approaches forced Mike to stay away from the Continental Shelf overnight but this is not expected to delay his arrival off Falmouth by very much.

17 year-old British sailor Mike Perham returned to Portsmouth today to a heroes welcome from his parents Peter and Heather Perham, sister Fiona, and thousands of friends and well-wishers, after becoming the youngest person to sail single-handed around the world.

His 50ft yacht Totallymoney.com  had crossed the traditional Lizard/Ushant line marking the start and finish point of his 30,000 mile record-setting solo sailing circumnavigation at 09: 47.30BST last Thursday morning - two months inside the previous age record set by American teenager Zac Sutherland. Portsmouth however, marks the start and finish point of this 9 month odyssey, for Mark Perham set out from Gunwharf Quay on 15th November 2008.

Morning dockside rumours of delays and divisions of boats having to kedge on the start line were roundly proven wrong as the Rolex Fastnet Race fleet, as well as spectators along the Cowes shoreline, enjoyed a magnificent, colourful spinnaker start.

Thankfully the unfavourable forecast for the start – no wind followed by a south westerly filling in from the west – had not panned out, with instead a welcome 10 knots from the east propelling the 300 strong fleet westwards down the Solent.

First away, punching into the last of the flood tide, were the IMOCA 60s. With their ‘big gear’ unfurled seconds before the start, it was Dee Caffari’s Aviva that made the most positive start towards the pin end.

Leg 3: Rio de Janeiro – Cape Town 3,270nm

For Leg 3 of Exercise TRANSGLOBE, the RAF yacht HMSTV Discoverer is skippered by Ms. Becky Walford, a Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre (JSASTC) Staff Skipper and Technical Sailing Advisor to the Exercise, the largest joint services adventurous training initiative ever undertaken. Becky’s crew comprises no less than 13 air and ground crew personnel from the UK’s largest transport fleet in the country, RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

They include Andy Smith, born and bred in Preston, Lancashire, who serves with 216 Squadron at Brize Norton and has spent 34 years in the RAF. His recent deployments have included Operations Telic and Herrick.  Telic is the British Operations in Iraq and Herrick is the equivalent in Afghanistan.  Andy, who is married with two children and lives near Witney, Oxon, has his Day Skipper and Yachtmaster theory qualification but he still needs and wants to gain his full Yachtmaster ticket.

In contrast to yesterday's excitement this was a day of light winds and challenging conditions for competitors and race officers alike.

The day started with a gentle southerly breeze, but a slow-moving and weak cold front just to the west of the Solent, threatened to reduce the wind to nearly zero in its wake. The nine Open 60s competing in the Artemis Challenge got away at 10:00 as scheduled, but the initial plan for a round the island race was changed to a round-the-cans course outside the forts. At the suggestion of Sam Davies the skippers agreed to take their times at each mark, to enable the course to be shortened easily if necessary.

The three yachts representing the Royal Navy (HMSTV Adventure), the British Army (HMSTV Challenger) and the Royal Air Force (HMSTV Discoverer) on Exercise TRANSGLOBE are now only a few days away from their fourth leg destination Perth, on the west coast of Australia.

On arrival, the exhausted crews will be hosted by the Fremantle Sailing Club and will enjoy a few days respite and recovery from the tough weather conditions they have endured during the 5,000nm voyage from Cape Town across the Southern Ocean. The 4th leggers will fly back to the UK and their places will be taken by the three new skippers and a new group of 39 crew personnel with 13 being allocated plus their skipper to each of the 67ft yachts.

Nanny Cay, the British Virgin Islands’ flagship resort and marina, has launched the Nanny Cay Challenge for the round Tortola record. 

Yachts visiting the British Virgin Islands are invited to make an attempt to beat the latest round Tortola records which have been established by the monohull and multihull times set in the 2009 PegLegs Round Tortola Race.

The current multihull and overall record is held by Triple Jack, a Kelsal 47 trimaran with a time of 3 hours, 33 minutes, 27 seconds.  The monohull time to beat of 4 hours, 15 minutes and 5 seconds, was set by Dave West’s Jurakan, a Melges 32. 

Puma Logic goes from strength to strength as the Malta Tourism Authority backs her for the 2010 racing season

Just a few months after being named the RORC ‘Yacht of the Year’, Sailing Logic is delighted to announce that its extremely successful Reflex 38, Puma Logic, has secured a significant sponsorship deal from the Malta Tourism Authority.

This exciting partnership between the Malta Tourism Authority and Sailing Logic, the UK’s leading yacht racing sailing school, has evolved as a direct result of the yacht’s successful racing campaign in 2009.  For the 2010 racing season she will now compete under the name of Visit Malta Puma. 

The Oyster BVI Caribbean regatta ended on a high note back at Nanny Cay with today's Class winners in the Pantaenius Cup race also securing the overall honours.

Chris and Susan Shea sailed a masterful race on their Oyster 72 'Magrathea'  to save their time over class 1 rivals, Mariusz Koper's Oyster 72 'Katharsis II' and Stuart Smith and Barry Cooper's  Oyster 82 'Oceana' , while David and Tamsin Kidwell's Oyster 435 'Twice Eleven'  repeated Friday's victory in class 2.

Today's race from St Peter Island Resort, took the fleet on a stiff beat up the Sir Francis Drake Channel to round Ginger Island before running down behind Cooper and Salt Islands and reach between  Dead Chest and Peter Island to finish off Nanny Cay.

A dramatic start to Race 4 of Clipper 09-10 in Cape Town saw eight of the boats cross the start line for the 4,700-mile race to Geraldton, Western Australia, while a collision between Hull & Humber and Cork, Ireland resulted in the two teams returning to harbour. None of the crew were hurt and the Race Director and the shore team are now assessing the damage to Hull & Humber’s port aft quarter and Cork’s bow.
 
California had another cracking start in the stiff south easterly breeze in Table Bay and was first across the line to massive cheers from the crew on board.

CANADA'S most experienced round the world yachtsman can today announce the purchase of a yacht to race in the VELUX 5 OCEANS. Derek Hatfield and Spirit of Canada Ocean Challenges has bought the Eco 60 yacht Great America III (formerly Solidaires) from veteran American solo sailor Rich Wilson.

The boat will now be renamed Spirit of Canada ahead of the 30,000-mile VELUX 5 OCEANS race which starts from La Rochelle in France in October. It will be the second time Derek, a native of New Brunswick, has competed in the VELUX 5 OCEANS after finishing third in Class II in the 2002/03 race.

Peta Stuart-Hunt unearths more gems amongst this year’s 1716 entries already processed, with 13 days to go

In amongst the hundreds of UK and international entries processed each year by the hard-working team at the Island sailing Club (ISC), the Isle of Wight always manages to produce a sizable and interesting turnout. This year is no exception with plenty of familiar local faces and boats signed up for the start line of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race on Saturday 19th June.

For the armchair spectators amongst you, don’t forget that many of the more familiar boats might well be available for you to track online right here for the very first time as they progress around the Island.

On Thursday 10th December 2009 record-breaking disabled yachtsman Geoff Holt will be embark on a personal and emotive voyage to cross the Atlantic, returning to the scene of the accident that paralysed him 25 years ago.

He will sail the 2,700 mile journey across some of the most hostile waters in the world sailing Impossible Dream, a 60ft, purpose built catamaran. Once his journey has been completed he will be the first quadriplegic to make the journey, unassisted in every aspect of the sailing.

Dame Ellen MacArthur knows only too well what a challenge the Atlantic can be. She added her support for Geoff and wished him well on his crossing, 'Geoff is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met.

Following the incident which took place on Sunday afternoon GMT in which the California entry in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race was rolled in a fierce Pacific storm, the Danish registered tanker, Nord Nightingale, is now at the scene.

The 180-metre tanker was on passage from Yokohama to Los Angeles and diverted by US Coastguard last night. It's a standard rule of the sea that vessels divert when another is in distress and the intention was to transfer injured crew member Clive Cockram on board.

Clive was sitting in the saloon when the boat rolled and was thrown across the cabin, ending up with cuts to his head. He responded well to treatment but it is prudent to ensure that he swiftly gets the best medical care.

Flat seas, good power-reaching breezes, speeds breaking the 20 knots mark, sunshine and even the prospect of kites up before sunset, life is good aboard the leading IMOCA Open 60 Safran.

As the race enters its second week since the fleet left Le Havre on a typically grey nondescript Autumn afternoon, full of anticipation, knowing well what lay between them and days like this, now it is payback time.

Having served their penance through the strong winds and horrendous seas of the last few days, it is time to enjoy the intense competition for the holy trinity, Safran, Mike Golding Yacht Racing and Groupe Bel.

In between the simple routine of just keeping their boats at maximum speed in the right direction, and picking their way as best they can, there is a certain quiet satisfaction underpinning the efforts of the top three duos in the IMOCA Open 60 fleet as these Transat Jacques Vabre leaders set themselves up to break into the Caribbean.

That is not to say that any of them have already accepted their position now will be the same when they cross the finish line off Costa Rica's Puerto Limon, but with the gap between leader Safran and second placed Groupe Bel grown by 20 miles to 81 miles early this morning, and the margin between Bel and Mike Golding Yacht Racing, in turn 82 miles, then each feels they have breathing space which they perhaps did not expect this morning.

Thrane & Thrane Inc. has sponsored daring teenager Abby Sunderland with a SAILOR 250 FleetBroadband for her personal quest to become the youngest solo, non-stop circumnavigator.

Abby, 16, set sail aboard her Open 40 racing yacht from Marina del Rey, California on 23rd January 2010, facing 27,500 nautical miles alone, but safe in the knowledge that her SAILOR 250 FleetBroadband will ensure she is in contact with friends, family and a legion of followers and well-wishers worldwide.

Abby has an extensive sailing background, being in and around sailboats since a toddler. She has accumulated thousands of miles of coastal cruising and experienced a number of hazardous weather conditions, which has prepared her well to take on this daunting challenge.

Young solo sailor Oscar Mead has revealed novel plans to raise enough money to enter a gruelling round the world yacht race.

This week/yesterday the 19-year-old Brit confirmed he will be going head to head with some of the best offshore sailors in the world in the 2010 VELUX 5 OCEANS race. Oscar has today launched the Team Oscar Mead 199 Club, offering donors a once-in-a-lifetime sailing experience in return for funding.

Oscar, the youngest skipper ever to compete in the VELUX 5 OCEANS, has already secured 40 per cent of his race budget from an unnamed sponsor. However with just six months left until the start of the 30,000-mile voyage on October 17, the race is on to find additional funding.