A day to remember to your grandchildren

Ed Gorman watched events unfold in the 150th anniversary of the America's Cup round the island race

A few images on the way to the Forts. The historic yawl, Stormy Weather, owned by Giuseppe Gazzoni, looked an absolute picture beating down under main and jib in the morning sunshine. The lurid green Australian sled Wild Thing stomped around the pre-start with a fully kitted-up chef in polka-dot blue and white trousers and a big white hat standing motionless on her transom.

Further down the Solent we spotted Mr America's Cup himself, Dennis Conner, looking very happy at the wheel of the 36-metre sloop Extra Beat. Following him was the new boat from the Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth, the dark-blue hulled 42.4-metre ketch, Rebecca, with Lawrie Smith at the wheel. Another awesome-looking ship.

The big names were all over the place. Grant Dalton taking a day off from his frantic Volvo Ocean Race preparations to drive the massive three-masted schooner, Shenandoah with endless square yards of varnish on show. Elizabeth Meyer relaxing on the transom of Onawa and Alan Bond enjoying the ride on Australia II which was being helmed once again by John Bertrand. When the three-masted schooner Adix tacked between us and the sun, we wondered whether a partial eclipse was underway.

Anyway, the conditions seemed useful enough for potential record-breaking and there was much interest to see if Mike Slade's time of four hours five minutes and 20 seconds in his 92ft sloop, Skandia Leopard, which was set in this year's Hoya Round the Island Race but on the course starting to the west, could be beaten. The most likely contender was Giovanni Agnelli's all-black carbon 90ft super-sloop, Stealth, driven by the top American skipper, Kenny Read.