Weekly round-up

Missed out on last week's news and features then read this!

Last weekend there another potential dry run of the show down many believe we will be seeing in Auckland at the America's Cup next February when Dean Barker locked horns with his former mentor Russell Coutts in the finals of the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand. And winner was... Barker, for the second time in as many Grand Prix.

Later in the week we published our interview with Barker, about the stress of taking over from Coutts at the helm of Team New Zealand and how it is panning out with the Kiwi campaign, who are running on a much lower budget compared to some of their highly financed challengers, and a much younger squad than defended the Cup last time round. See parts one and two of our interview.

Controversy in the America's Cup hit a new high with the news that a syndicate head of Sweden's Victory Challenge syndicate had been sentenced to eight months in prison for fraud.

The German Farr 40 Struntje Light, with Iain Percy on tactics, lost the lead on the final day of the Farr 40 Europeans. But it was still an amazing performance against some of the world's top navigators and tacticians - a list including John Kostecki, Thierry Peponnet, Franck Cammas and many more. madforsailing caught up with Iain Percy to find out how was getting on in big boats as well as getting an update on his Star campaign.

Over the course of the week the Tour Voile was continued on its way around the French coast. Jimmy Pahun's all-star team put in a top performance when they were first in Paimpol. But the Swiss team on Ville de Geneve Carrefour Prevention got another win in the bank when they won the inshore series there. Sailing with his all-star team of solo offshore sailors such as Isabelle Autissier, Pahun won again in the the long offshore race to St Nazaire on Wednesday. But the lead was batted back to Switzerland later in the week when they won the offshore race to La Rochelle.

Down in Marseilles the weather was playing havoc at the ISAF World Sailing Games. These turn light on Monday. There was some good news on Tuesday when Ian Williams pulled into first place in the J/80 fleet, while on Wednesday there was a lot of action in the protest room. The ISAF World Sailing Games concluded with, unsurprisingly, a large French medal haul.

Elsewhere in France a British team won the first ever University's international match race. Meanwhile the weekend saw the likes of Bruno Peyron and Stefano Rizzi taking part in a bizarre yacht racing and cooking event in Venice.

With the Belgium 60ft trimaran grand prix due later in the week we previewed three new 60ft trimarans recently launched. These included the new van Peteghem/Lauriot Prevost designs - Geant of Vendee Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux and Thomas Coville's new Sodebo that was launched at the weekend. We also looked at Baron Benjamin de Rothschild's latest Gitana X, a radical break with his family's 150 year old sailing tradition. Aside from being a 60ft trimaran, reported James Boyd, she is the first 60ft tri to have been conceived in 15 years by Gilles Ollier and his team better known for their maxi-cats like Orange and Maiden II.

Open 50s are to be banned from the next Vendee Globe according to the Notice of Race. This has caused some wranglings within the fleet as several new Open 50 footers are currently being built specially for the non-stop around the world race. However as a sop there is a new transatlantic event specially for 50ft monohulls and multis.

Our round-up of the dinghy open meets around the UK included the Supernova Sea Championships at Exe Sailing Club, OK Southern Area Championships, the Texaco Welsh Schools Championships, the RS Fat Face Racing Circuit Event, Hayling Island SC - 200s and for the RS 800s and K6s, the National 12 Inland Championships - Northampton SC, the Long Distance Weekend at Bala Sailing Club, the Lark regatta at Weymouth, the Flying Fifteen Northern Championships 2002, the Dart 18 Grand Prix Event at Stokes Bay SC and finally a preview to the Flying Fifteen Nationals to be held at Scottish Sailing Institute, Largs on 21-26 July.

During the week the Optimist Worlds were underway in Texas. See the report from day one, the Oppie team racing. Eventually gold and silver places were taken by Croatia at the conclusion to the event.

In the Mediterranean the Finn Europeans were in full swing with strong British representation from Ben Ainslie and Andrew 'Bart' Simpson. Tuesday saw Ben Ainslie win his first race there, which he followed up with another good day on Thursday, and eventually pulled into first place. On Saturday Ben became Finn European Champion - a superb effort considering he has only been sailing the Finn for five months.

On Tuesday the Tour Voile fleet set off on their longest ever offshore race all the way round Brittany to St Nazaire. The next day Rob Greenhalgh's Panther won her second race - but again it was a non-scorer... Doh! On Thursday night the 40 Mumm 30s set sail bound for La Rochelle. With the addition of 49er silver medallist Ian Barker in the crew Rob Greenhalgh, put in a better day in the inshore races off La Rochelle.

Despite having the grand finale to their 2001/2 series at the weekend, the new 2002/3 Swedish Match Tour kicked off on Thursday with the first day of the Trombini Trophy in Ravenna, Italy.
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A strong British contingent set off on Sunday in the Demi Cle, the Mini class' race from Lorient to Cork, then Baltimore and back. Among the fleet were a strong contingent of British sailors, depictive of the ever growing interest in this fleet in the UK. Ian Munslow was first singlehander home on the first leg. madforsailing spoke to Irish newbie Mini sailor Cian McCarthy. and to former Amer Sports Too bowgirl Liz Wardley (left) who impressively took second place in her first ever Mini race.



Nine teams have registered for the Rolex Commodore's Cup. Thankfully RORC believe they will get another three more. In Auckland Peter Harrison's new Wight Lightning was due to be launched on Saturday.

The first day of the Belgium Grand Prix for the 60ft trimarans saw Loick Peyron's Fujifilm on song. Unfortunately the new Gitana X didn't make it to the start due to teething problems. 20 knot winds provided an action-packed Saturday including a major collision between Jean le Cam in Bonduelle and Philippe Monnet's Sopra Group.

On Friday the Roberto Trombini match racing is into the semi-finals, while budding match racers are invited to take part in the ADT Gold Cup. A clear leader began to show himself in OneWorld's James Spithill.

At the final 18ft Skiff Grand Prix of the season RMW Marine continued their dominance of the circuit, despite regular skipper Rob Greenhalgh being away on the Tour Voile.

In 'your feedback' pillars of our community such as Farr 40 owner Mark Heeley, designer Adrian Thompson and Antarctica Cup CEO Bob Williams give their views on the future of the Volvo Ocean Race.