One World diary

Mark Chisnell gives his thoughts on Ben Ainslie's departure and the arrival of the Volvo

Christmas has come and gone since the last diary, along with the Boat Show and the British Nautical Awards. It was great to see madfor sailing win the media prize. James Boyd and the team have done a fabulous job since I left them all in the lurch last February, and the award is thoroughly well deserved.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch-house, it didn't take long after the New Year for the action to restart - with Oracle dropping a rig during the first full week of January. Although they had the replacement in the boat by the following morning, it was back out again soon after, followed by several other masts along syndicate row.

The sharp-eyed watchers of the Viaduct Basin will also have noted our return to the dock with a broken jumper strut after a Big Friday of racing out on the Gulf. But it's all part of the game - you don't know where the edge is if you haven't fallen over it a couple of times.

And OneWorld hit the headlines earlier in that week with Ben Ainslie's departure back to the Olympic circuit - which you've doubtless read all about on these very pages. I'm sad to see Ben go. Though I'd never met him before joining this team he was great to sail with, and OneWorld will certainly miss him. It also means one less person to talk to about the football scores. Good luck with the Finn, Ben, though I'm sure you won't need it.

If the America's Cup activity wasn't keeping the media busy enough, the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet has fixed that. It was great to see Neal McDonald and his Assa Abloy team win the leg into Auckland. Neal's one of Britain's most talented all-round sailors, hugely well-respected by his peer group - and he's racked up a list of achievements as long as your arm while keeping an undeservedly low media profile.

Perhaps that's the reason, but I was disappointed to see British newspaper stories reporting that Neal was soon to be replaced by Paul Cayard - almost as soon as he had been appointed skipper in Cape Town. Let's hope that this leg win will dispel such talk and give Neal and his team the platform they need to build the overall result they deserve. It's also good to see Cayard now back in the race, joining Dalton on Amer Sports One - I wonder if this leg will be as successful for him as the last time he did it?

The press knives have been out again recently, and this time for the race itself. But whether you think the first Volvo Ocean Race is better/ worse/ the same as the last Whitbread, you have to take account of how quickly the world has changed. Ten or fifteen years ago the Whitbread was the only game in town, now there's a round the planet race wherever you look, and each has an increasingly professional media operation to bring it to the attention of the world.

It's the old problem - too many classes, too many events and ultimately too many winners for even a sailing savvy public, never mind the bemused mass-media audience.