2001 - a yachting odyssey pt2

Gerald New harks back to what happened on the sailing scene in the second quarter of 2001

Mini madness was about to take the UK by storm - racing a 21ft skiff across the Atlantic Ocean might seem like bad craziness to many, but not to the dedicated group of Mini sailors. Almost 100 boats wanted to enter September's Mini Transat, but there are only 50 spots available. As the fleet arrived in Portsmouth on the Mini-Pavois, Brits Brian Thompson, Paul Peggs and Sam Davies all finished in the top 10 out of 65 boats.

On the second leg back to France the surprise of the day came with madforsailing correspondent Sam Davies' second place, ahead of fellow Brit a nd favourite Brian Thompson in the finale of the Mini-Pavois. A good omen for the Mini Transat.

In the dinghy world things were getting back into action and we looked at the new EeZee Roller Merlin Rocket launch and at the SPA Regatta - no first places but podium positions for Nick Rogers and Joe Glandfield in the men's 470, Alistair Richardson and Peter Greenhalgh in the 49er, Hugh Styles and Adam May in the Tornado and Natasha Sturges on the Mistral. With two other Brits with fourths places it was a worthy haul.

Check out Peter Bentley's photo gallery from the regatta and his interview with Henri van der Aat the man behind SPA's radical format.

And out if the depths, one of the bows of Team Philips was spotted just off the Irish coast, while the starboard hull soon after was found washed up in a small port in sourthern Iceland, 800 miles away.

Despite the demise of this year's Admiral's Cup, big boat racing was alive and well in the UK as June started with the Amicus IR2000 Championships.

77 of the UK's top racing boats took part, with Adam Gosling's IC45 Yes winning the IRM grand prix division and Justin Slawson's X-362 Sport Big Cheese the overall prize in the more popular IRC cruiser/racer class. madforsailing's Peter Bentley wondered if IR2000 is seeing the same popularity with racers as IOR once enjoyed.

Not only is Rodney Pattisson British sailing's most successful Olympian with two Gold medals and one silver to his name in the Flying Dutchman class, but he was the fastest man around the Isle of Wight, in June but others were to attack that record later in the year.

In the Volvo build up Lisa MacDonald was fulfilling a dream by being appointed skipper of Nautor Challenge's second Volvo Ocean 60. But with just three months to go before the Volvo Ocean Race starts, she has her work cut for her. Lisa gave her first ever official interview to madforsailing.

In dinghies not all was well.

After leading the Tornados for most of Kiel regatta, Rob Wilson and Will Howden left in disgust over a dispute with the race committee after they were black flagged at the start of Saturday's first race.

Fortunately, matters were better for Paul Brotherton and Simon Hiscocks who won the 49ers ahead of Ian Barker and Harvey Hillary in third.