By Ian Walker

On day five of leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race and we had sailed about 2,000 miles from Cape Town. For the Green Dragon it has been very eventful, but as the scoring gate (a line of 58 degrees longitude)  approached we are narrowly holding on to third place.

It was very nerve wracking as we had given up much of our 50-mile lead over the Russians in order also to go north for the secondary aim of reaching India.

At one stage it looked as though we may have done this too early and that could have meant losing that third place and the three points that go with it, but, in the end, we have it perfectly judged. We have a very strong incentive to go north to escape a second Southern Ocean low which could envelope us if we stay south. Our boat is in no real state for more strong winds reaching right now.

Keeping it very simple, Sir Keith Mills, by far the best candidate to head a reconstituted America's Cup management organisation, took a couple of minutes out before going to watch his British America's Cup challenge Team Origin and its Extreme 40 crew try and show both Alinghi (of Switzerland) and BMW Oracle (of the US) who was boss in an Extreme 40 catamaran on the home waters of the Solent.

By Stuart Alexander

There is almost a saving grace of reality as three apparent America's Cup contenders race each other off Cowes this weekend, but there is also the strong whiff of the surreal. Strictly speaking, Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle is not an official challenger for the America's Cup, except that the California-based team has a constituency in the New York Courts.

By Stuart Alexander in Marseille

Much of the insecurity in international yacht racing is on display in Marseille as the TP52 fleet gathers for the second of six regattas in the Audi Medcup series.

For a start, three of the boats which were at the first regatta in Alicante have not bothered to turn up. The reason, it is said, is because their sponsor backers only want to advertise to the Spanish market and they will not travel to France or Sardinia. Major sponsors are always making pious claims about their partnership with sport but peddling their commercial wares seems to take priority and the integrity of a series can be ignored.

By Stuart Alexander

The world has moved on since the glorious days of 1976 when a bumper fleet gathered in Plymouth to race across the Atlantic and join the bi-centenary celebrations for American independence. Every sort and condition of man and his boats was assembled from giant to little more than dinghy and including both monohulls and multihulls.

By Stuart Alexander

The fact that most visitors would not know the difference between computational fluid dynamics and a power shower is irrelevant in the buttoned up world of Alinghi and the America's Cup. Even though everyone in the room knows that under the 19th century deed of gift rules that govern the Cup, the defender has to be ready for a challenge with 10 months notice, the assertion that Alinghi would need a minimum of nine months to build a boat and a further two to work it up is delivered with deadpan confidence.