Dusting cobwebs off Australia II

Andy Rice went sailing on KA-6 for her first outing on British waters

Up pointed end, Australia II's heroic bowman Damian Fewster is doing his thing on an unfeasibly narrow place without any stanchions to hang on to. The boys are looking a little older, but no less adept at their respective jobs. The original team will be almost up to full strength for the America's Cup Jubilee, with 11 of the crew getting back together including helmsman John Bertrand. Grant Simmer is busy working with Russell Coutts's current America's Cup campaign, but Warren Jones hopes to get him on board for the round the island race. As for the whereabouts of Alan Bond, the man who paid for it all 18 years ago, Jones is not sure. "I think he's based in London these days, but we're trying to get him down for the round the island race." However madforsailing can reveal that this controversial figure who ended up in the clink for corporate and art fraud will be in Cowes for the Jubilee.

Navigating the most celebrated keel in yachting around the treacherous Isle of Wight coast is going to be a poisoned chalice job. It's the winning, not the taking part that matters to Lissiman and his crew, but it will be a brave man who negotiates a 60-foot, wing-keeled museum piece through the short cut between the wreck and the Needles. The curators will be having kittens. A startline with 32 other 12-Metres jostling for position will put those duck tape marks into perspective. I'd be happy if Australia II went back into the container the same shape as she came out.