Auckland diary

"I'm not 007" Sean Reeves claims. Nigel Cherrie reports on the latest twists and turns down America's Cup alley

Elsewhere...

On a slightly more positive note, OneWorld’s James Spithill is making a speedy recovery from his motorcycle accident last week.

The 22 year old Australian helmsman came off his bike while doing 60 km/h per hour and the wheels of the car involved stopped 15cm from his head as he lay on the road.

Her Majesty the Queen is in New Zealand for part of this week and a visit to syndicate row is included in her official itinerary.

But she will visit the defenders Team New Zealand and not Great Britain's America's Cup team tomorrow (yet is must be pointed out she is also the Queen of New Zealand) .

The royal entourage will go to the Team New Zealand base where they will board a royal barge to take Her Majesty on a tour of the Viaduct Basin. The tour is expected start at the Prada base and finish outside the GBR Challenge compound (at the other end of Halsey Street) where the complete British team will be assembled. Her Majesty is not due to stop and meet the team.

While the Brits are not due to return en mass to the UK until late March, some members of sailing and shore team will be leaving New Zealand early, starting as soon as this week.

Up to eight guys will return to the syndicate's Cowes base to assist in the final stages of construction of the new America's Cup yacht. But this still leaves a healthy number of sailors to complete the two boat testing program and enter next week's CORM event plus the New Zealand round of the grade one match racing championship, the Steinlager Cup later next month.

Another team flying the Union Jack, the English cricket team, have been receiving more column inches here for their performances in the One Day International series than even Team New Zealand did for winning the International Regatta.

In the beginning they were slated for losing twice to the Black Caps (spectacularly) but then the headlines backtracked as they for claimed back their creditability with two remarkable wins.

And GBR Challenge may have provided an injection of hope and enthusiasm that could ultimately save Nasser Hussain's series. On Friday they took a break from their training to join Peter Harrison's team on the Hauraki Gulf, and some swapped the pitch for the pit.

Four of the 20 strong squad, Darren Gough and Andrew Flintoff (on GBR-44) and Andrew Caddick and Paul Collingwood (on GBR-52) braved the wind and rain to try their hand at grinding and steering, with some expert guidance.

Gough decided to go for six and climbed the 100ft mast on one of Peter Harrison's IAC yachts. In a show of solidarity, some of the GBR Challenge team supported their fellow sportsman at the fourth ODI match, which they subsequently won.

PR gimmicks and scandals aside, the America's Cup is supposed (!) to be about yacht racing and the next installment of that is due next Saturday with the CORM (Challenger of Record Management) event.

Prada, Oracle and Alinghi all confirmed to MadforSailing on Friday that they will be in attendance that week, while OneWorld are still deciding.

Team New Zealand is obviously not invited, but it is safe to assume they would love to play.

CORM is providing courses, complete with race teams, as a dress rehearsal for the challenger series next autumn but are not organising the pairings. And it seems that none of the syndicates are keen to take on the responsibility of running a co-ordinated schedule either. Imagine the possible confusion this could cause?

CORM also made it clear that there would be no official scoreboard. But you can bet your last dollar someone will be chalking up the results, especially when the heavyweights clash.

Where's Chris Dickson - see page 3...