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From Bob Fisher
Will the new British challenger be a goer? Naturally, we think there is every chance of the British challenger for the Little America's Cup being successful, otherwise we would not be seeking to lift the "Young Mug". We have, in this country, all the relative technology and it is a case of putting it all in place. We have the sailors, and have proved this in the Tornado class, a boat incidentally which was developed from early "C" class thinking, so there should not be any barriers for our group. We have therefore decided to challenge and we welcome help from anyone with good ideas, time, energy and cash to assist us to return the trophy. We could have sat at home dreaming, but there is only one way to achieve our aims and that will be with design research and many hours on the water. We are up for it. Bob Fisher on behalf of the British Challenge for the Little America's Cup


Our gallery of pictures from the Little Americas Cup also struck a chord with a number of readers.

From Dan Nerney
What do you think about these extraordinary boats? Pound for pound the C-Class Cats are among the most exciting boats in the world and surely the most sophisticated. Thrilling to watch in light or moderate air they seldom stay together in heavy air.Their crews are aerodynamicists as well as athletes.

From Rene Shelton
What do you think about these extraordinary boats?It's a shame the 'big' America's Cup isn't as innovative... then perhaps the common sailors can benefit from less expensive technology in a shorter amount of time. That is, as opposed to watching elitists spend a phenomenal amount of money thrashing the proverbial dead horse to gain, what, .25 kt?


The ugly prospect of performance enhancing drugs being used in sailing reared its ugly head with the banning of a Brazilian Europe sailor for using steroids. This is typical of the responses we received.

From Joakim Rechnitzer
What do you think of the penalty?
Dear madforsailing, As part of the Europe male elite for the past few years I never thought that this subject would appear in the class. The demands of the Europe, in my opinion, are so small that using anabolic steroids should never be a possible way of getting better results. Felipe Meira of Brazil who received the to year ban never had use of the possible advantage in using anabolic steroids. Ending up in the middle of the silver fleet you can say it might didn't affect his result. But he didn't follow the rules so the penalty is correct. Having also competed in the 2000 Worlds held in Brazil one question is in the back of my head. Have this been going on for a long time and/or is Mr. Meira, also a competitor of the 2000 Worlds, the only Brazilian who have been using anabolic steroids? This is no accusation of the Brazilian sailors, but they did extremely well during the Worlds. A result of the location or other things? We'll never know. One thing is for sure. From now on we can't out rule that anabolic steroids can and will be used in sailing ' even in the non-Olympic classes. A steep in the wrong direction for the sport of clean Sailing. Best regards, Joakim Rechnitzer, Denmark

Page three... Paul Henderson's proposals for the future of the Olympic Games