Spain moves ahead

Following second day of Admiral's Cup windward-leewads in the Solent

With King Juan Carlos of Spain still unbeaten in the big boat class of the Admiral's Cup, Spain's Real Club Nautico San Genjo now, provisionally, has a clear lead at the top of the leader board, after four of the nine races have been completed.

Australia's Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club hold second place, just three points behind the Spanish, while the Sailability Royal Ocean Racing Club team representing Britain are a further four points back in third place.

The overall results at this stage, and therefore the Corum Trophy for the best performing team over the first two days of the event, are in doubt due to a protest between the British boat Dickies Yacht Sales, and the small boat of the Spanish team, Telefonica Movistar.

Sunday's racing was sailed in almost perfect conditions, with a steady 12-15 knot south easterly breeze and a cloudless blue sky, for the first of the day's two contests, with the wind easing to between 10-12 knots in the afternoon.

In the big boat class, the pattern that emerged on the first day continued, with Australia's Wild Oats, steered by Mark Richards, establishing an early and ever increasing lead, though never far enough ahead of the King of Spain's Bribon Telefonica Movistar, to win on handicap.

In the small boat class, the competition is much tighter, with the fleet always closely bunched, and mistakes or tactical errors punished rapidly, with lost places.

However, after two days three boats - Australia's Aftershock, the Spanish Telefonica Movistar and Chernikeeff 4 of Britain - have established themselves as the front runners.

Some of the best tactical racing has been between Chernikeeff 4, steered by Laser gold medallist Ben Ainslie, and Aftershock with bronze medallist Colin Beashel at the helm.

Although King Juan Carlos is leaving his boat for a few days to return home on official duty, it is unlikely the current good performance will suffer, as the crew is stacked with some of the world's top big boat sailing talent.

Behind the wheel is Britain's Jez Fanstone, with another Briton, Eddie Warden Owen as tactician, while navigating is Australian Andrew Cape, to name but a few of the big names on board.

Tomorrow - Monday - the fleet set off on a short offshore race, around the English Channel, which will be tailored to last between 24 and 36 hours, and will count for double points.

Team points

Pos	Team Name	Points
1	Telefonica Movistar Sailing Team	14
2	Royal Prince Alfred Team	17
3	Sailability RORC Team	21
4	Team Royal Southern	42
5	Team Paprec Recyclage - UNCL	45
6	Team Bear - RTYC	47
7	Sailability CCYC Team	49
8	Estrella Galicia Sailing Team	53

Results

Boat	Owner/skipper	Team Name	R1 IRC	R1 IMS	R2 IRC	R2 ISM	R3 IRC	R3 IMS	R4 IRC	R4 IMS	Tot
Bribon Telefonica Movistar	Jose Cusi/HM Juan Carlos I	Telefonica Movistar Sailing Team	1		1		1		1		4
Aftershock	Colin O’Neil	Royal Prince Alfred Team		2		2		3		1	8
Chernikeeff 4	Peter Harrison/Ian Walker	Sailability RORC Team		3		1		2		2	8
Wild Oats	Robert Oatley	Royal Prince Alfred Team	2		2		2		3		9
Telefonica Movistar	Pedro Campos	Telefonica Movistar Sailing Team		1		5		1		3	10
Chernikeeff 2	Peter Harrison/Marcus Fitzgerald	Sailability RORC Team	4		3		4		2		13
Bear of Britain	Kit Hobday/Tim Louis	Team Bear - RTYC	3		5		5		4		17
Volvo for Life Team Tonic	Nick Hewson	Team Royal Southern	5		4		3		6		18
Paprec Recyclage	Stephane Neve	Team Paprec Recyclage - UNCL		7		3		4		4	18
Chernikeeff 3	Peter Harrison/Andy Green	Sailability CCYC Team		4		7		7		5	23
Estrella Galicia Dos	Antonio Viejo Puga/Alberto Viejo Puga	Estrella Galicia Sailing Team		6		4		5		8	23
Dickies Yacht Sales	Nigel Biggs	Team Royal Southern		5		6		6		7	24
Chernikeeff	Peter Harrison/Andy Cassell	Sailability CCYC Team	7		6		8		5		26
Groupe Paprec	Gery Trenteseaux	Team Paprec Recyclage - UNCL	6		7		7		7		27
Dancing Bear	David Scanlan	Team Bear - RTYC		8		8		8		6	30
Estrella Galicia Uno	Antonio Viejo Puga/Javier Aguado Bianco	Estrella Galicia Sailing Team	8		8		6		8		30