Weekly round up

Missed last weeks news? Find out what happened here.

The last week saw the start of the second Southern Ocean leg of the Volvo Ocean Race at midnight (GMT) Saturday before last and the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes regatta.

In Auckland fastest out of the blocks at the start of leg four to Rio was Kevin Shoebridge's Tyco. They were later overhauled by News Corp. See Ed Gorman's report from Auckland and our photo gallery of the action. The first few days were dominated by light conditions from a high pressure system. See Peter Bentley's reports from Monday and Tuesday.

Back in the UK, the RYA announced amendment to the format for the National Match Racing Championships. This included adding some training sessions prior to the qualifiers. Gerald New brought us up to date with all that's happening in the Enterprise class.

In the ORMA 60ft trimaran class discussions were underway in France on Monday to prevent costs spiralling out of control. James Boyd spoke to Fujifilm skipper Loick Peyron about the changes.

After the Christmas break the America's Cup camps down in Auckland are back in full swing. Ed Gorman spoke to Andy Beadsworth - a man in an awkward position as key member of Peter Harrison's GBR Challenge who wants to steer the boat, but is up against Ian Walker and Andy Green.


Back to the Volvo Ocean Race, and in an exclusive interview for madfor sailing carried out just before the restart Ed Gorman found Grant Dalton in punchy mood on the topics of Cayard v Dee Smith, how Amer Sports One is oh so terribly slow (and yet is second overall) and on why djuice should have stayed in Auckland.

Meanwhile on the race course the boats had rounded East Cape, the easternmost extremity of New Zealand and were forcing south. While SEB was nominally in the lead, Amer Sports One was furthest south. This continued on Thursday when Peter Bentley reported that the boats were due to hit the westerlies any moment. Amer Sports Too had taken a hard right and was the westernmost boat, already 40 miles behind the remaining seven leaders, due to problems with their water ballast at the start. Navigator/co-skipper Mark Rudiger sends madfor sailing his exclusive report from Assa Abloy.

Prior to the start of the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes regatta kicking off, Olympic expert Peter Bentley looked at the main contenders - British or otherwise - taking part, while while RYA guru Jim Saltonstall's Venue Guide to Miami - all you need to know if you're taking part in a regatta there.

After some weeks off easing himself into his new Star, madfor sailing columnist and Gold medallist Iain Percy gave us an update on his new Star campaign with Steve Mitchell.

Meanwhile we reported on a new Open 60 event announced in France and on the classic boat fleets signed up for this July's Cork Week.

Late on Thursday the Volvo Ocean Race boats finally came into contact with the strong Southern Ocean conditions that they have been trying desperately to reach since the start. Tactically it became an interesting call for the navigators as to when to hang a left and start heading for Cape Horn. Dalton and Cayard were first to do so following the 1000GMT position update on Thursday and pulled into first on the leader board as a result.

The early signs from the Miami Olympic classes regatta, looked promising after the first day of race with Andrew 'Bart' Simpson and Dave Mellor holding first and second in the Finns, Paul Goodison second in the Lasers and Shirley Robertson's team fifth in the Ynglings.

The good results continued for Team GBR with Simpson and Goodison pulling into the lead in their respective classes after day two and Iain Percy winning his first Star race. On matters Olympic Lynsey Thomas spoke to 'Sparky' (aka Stephen Parks), the RYA's new head of their World Class Performance Programme.

Peter Bentley reported on the Commodore's Cup selection trials that have been announced for the English team. At present six boats must be chosen out of around 15.