The French Olympic Sailing Week started with a whisper on Sunday (25 April), with just five of the twelve competing classes able to see any race action on the opening day.

Light wind conditions upset the race schedule right from the outset of this fourth leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup series, although Britain’s Olympic, World and European Champion Paul Goodison, 2.4mR sailors Helena Lucas, Megan Pascoe and Lucy Macgregor’s match racing crew all had promising starts to their regattas.

Goodison and his Laser fleet saw a long day on the water with just one race to result to show for it – a race which saw the Skandia Team GBR star finish third in the testing conditions, in spite of picking up a yellow flag penalty – while Helena Lucas and Megan Pascoe saw a strong start in the 2.4mR Paralympic fleet.

Read the full story here: http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/news/Pages/LightwindsmarstartofsailingWorldC...

From the drag-resistant materials encasing its hulls to its unprecedented 223-foot wing sail, the BMW ORACLE Racing’s trimaran, named USA, is a one-of-a-kind technological juggernaut. No less impressive are the electronics used to guide the vessel and fine-tune its performance.

The wrist PDA displays worn by five of the USA-17 crew - where they could read actual and predictive data fed back from the onboard systems - Click Here to view large photo
Each crewmember is equipped with a PDA on his wrist that has customized data for his job: what the load balance is on a particular rope, for example, or the current aerodynamic performance of the wing sail. The helmsman’s sunglasses display graphical and numeric data to help him fine-tune the boat’s direction while he keeps two hands on the wheel and visually scans the sea, the boat, the crew, the sails, and the wing.

Read the full story here: http://www.sail-world.com/Asia/index.cfm?SEID=2&Nid=68834&SRCID=0&ntid=0&tick...

A free trolley and lock worth £130 are now available with two models of Yamaha outboards.

Any customer buying the F2.5 or F4B motors from a Yamaha dealership will receive the accessories for free.

The first accessory is an adjustable, lightweight outboard trolley, which folds for easy and compact stowage when not in use.

And the second is a stainless-steel outboard motorlock, the YAM Lock Pro, for transom-clamp securing on the rail, outboard-bracket or tender transom.

A Yamaha spokesman said: "With the sailing season finally here, many UK boaters are actively getting afloat and Yamaha are making a worthwhile contribution to ease of engine handling and transport on land and greater engine security while afloat or when craft are left unattended."

See www.yamaha-motor.co.uk for a list of authorised Yamaha dealers and full terms and conditions.

Kiel will play host to the dynamic circuit for the third year running, from 26-29 August, with the action once again being played out just metres from the shoreline.

Gilles Chiorri, Event Director for OC Events commented: "The final piece of the jigsaw is now in place. Kiel has seen some of the biggest crowds in the European circuit over the past three years. In 2008 over 80,000 people turned up to watch and even last year, when it rained solidly for three days, we still had over 50,000 determined spectators. We look forward to putting on some top racing and spectacular entertainment again for the German fans."

Commenting on the return of the circuit, Lord Mayor Torsten Albig from the northern maritime land capital said: "Kiel is already internationally renowned for hosting one of the world's most famous sailing regattas, Kieler Woche, so to welcome again another top level professional event to the calendar is fantastic news."

The Kiel-Marketing team, which masterminded branding the city as an international sailing venue, has developed an excellent working relationship with OC Events, promoting and marketing the event across Germany and supporting it with infrastructure for the teams and VIP hospitality. Uwe Wanger, Managing Director of Kiel-Marketing said: "With OC Events as a partner, we again look forward to a spectacular sailing event and we welcome all the international teams, their partners and guests visiting Kiel. We urge companies and institutions to use this unique platform to invite customers and present themselves to the German public in a setting of world class sports."

The 2010 Extreme Sailing Series Calendar is now confirmed, with more days racing than ever before:
Sète, France 27-30 May
Cowes, United Kingdom 31 July-5 August
Kiel, Germany 26-29 August
Trapani, Italy 23-26 September
Almería, Spain 9-12 October

Read the full story here: http://www.cowes.co.uk/zonexml/story?cp=0;story_id=8988

The Antigua Sailing Week organizers don't have much luck really. Last year their title sponsor Allen Stanford dropped out weeks before the event, in a whirlwind fraud scandal that rocked the island. This year the infamous Icelandic volcano chose to erupt, jeopardising the ability of many crews to make it out here. But a bit of airspace mayhem wasn't enough to dent the growing enthusiasm for this, the 43rd running of an event considered the climax of Caribbean sailing calendar. Impressively, 120 boats have still showed up for registration.
Tomorrow (Saturday 24th April) was due to be the first day of all-class racing, but has been postponed to allow the remaining crews still delayed to arrive.

Read the full story here: http://www.yachtingworld.com/news/452047/antigua-sailing-week-2010-begins

The eighth leg of the 09-10 Clipper race began in San Francisco on Wednesday after a stopover disrupted by the volcanic ash cloud.

All incoming crew members had arrived in California before the flight ban, but one boat has been forced to change skipper.

Chris Stanmore-Major, skipper of Qingdao, flew back to the UK to visit an ill relative, only to have his return flight cancelled, forcing Hannah Jenner to fill his shoes on the leg to Jamaica via the Panama Canal.

Read the full story here: http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/451833/clipper-fleet-disrupted-by-ash-cloud

The Pro-Am races will be first on the agenda for the weekend, where the power of the Volvo Open 70s are showcased to the public and race guests.

The second day sees the Volvo Ocean Race teams battle it out in two In-Port races, which count to their overall points tally. The short course of the In-Port races and the proximity to the stopover harbours and beaches, will allow the public to watch the racing up close.

The finale to the long weekend is the Leg start.

The start and finish ports also have a revamped schedule. Alicante will have a week of festivals between the In-Port and Pro-Am race weekend and the start of Leg One to Cape Town.

Galway will be the first finish city in the event's history to stage an inshore race after the final leg.

There will be no scoring gates in this edition of the race but the fleet will still pass round some famous islands. On Leg One the fleet will pass the island of Fernando de Noronha, 200 nautical miles off the Brazilian coast as the first proper rounding mark of the race.

Due to increasing pirate attacks and hijacking off the coast of Somalia, the fleet will sail around an exclusion zone, which will be added to this area nearer race time.

On Leg Eight from Lisbon, Portugal to Lorient, France the fleet heads offshore again for a 1,940-nautical mile leg, rounding the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores before heading back towards the northwest coast of France.

The Fastnet Rock is the last landmark the sailors will catch sight of before their final sprint up the west coast of Ireland to Galway.

The race will visit eight stopover ports on five continents and race through four oceans, in under nine months. The Volvo Open 70's will cover over 39,270 nautical miles racing around the globe.

The Icelandic volcano may have put paid to many Britons’ travel plans in recent days, but GBR’s top sailors swapped planes for ferries and cars in their bid to make it to Hyeres on the south coast of France for the latest leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup series (25-30 April).

Olympic medallists Sarah Ayton, Nick Dempsey and Paul Goodison were among the sailors who switched their travel plans in order to make the French Olympic Sailing Week – the fourth event of the seven-stop World Cup series.

For most Skandia Team GBR sailors, with the help of team partners SeaFrance, it was a straightforward journey to the continent – but others were less fortunate.Laser sailor and 2009 World Cup winner Nick Thompson was forced to abandon his trip to the event altogether, having struggled to make it back from the USA in time, while match racing world number one Annie Lush endured a determined journey from Palma to join her Elliot 6m teammates Lucy Macgregor and Ally Martin at the regatta.

Read the full story here:http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/news/Pages/BritishsailorsbeattravelchaosforFrenchWorldCupregatta.aspx

The French sure know how to spoil everyone's day.....read on:

Dan Snow, son of retired BBC TV presenter, Peter Snow has been told to stop transporting British travellers stranded by the closure of Europe's air space, across the Channel by boat.

TV Historian, Dan, 31, led a fleet of five RIBs over to Calais on Sunday, with proceeds from passenger donations going to charity.

Organised using social media site Twitter.com and an email address on Hotmail, Dan used his media profile to arrange the boats and announce the mission on the BBC in a single day.

However by Sunday, French authorities had stepped in to prevent the full complement of 43 passengers from boarding.

The final tweet said: Calais rescue is over and out! Thank you for all your support.

In total, three RIBs returned to Dover carrying 23 people.

# 1. San Diego. If you’re like most people, you think of San Diego as one of the sunniest places in the U.S., and you’d be right. With the exception of a few overcast days in June each year, that’s pretty much the case. Living in San Diego, you can participate in a floating cookout near Mission Bay. You can hop on over to Coronado Island, or you can spend an afternoon on Catalina Island. There’s plenty to do with your boat in San Diego.
# 2. Seattle, Washington. OK, so Seattle isn’t known for being sunny, but it’s also not as dreary as you might think. The beautiful thing about Seattle is the scenery. You’ve got mountains, islands, peninsulas and the Seattle skyline. There are a number of boating communities in and around Seattle, as well.
# 3. Otter Tail County, Minnesota. The state of Minnesota is any boater’s dream. In the state with 10,000 lakes, more than 1,000 are located in Otter Tail County. The summer may be shorter, but the sheer number of opportunities for boating make it worth it.
# 4. Tampa Bay, Florida. If you’d rather boat on the Gulf of Mexico, Tampa Bay is the place to be. There are plenty of boat communities and harbors and homes with water access. The fishing is good, and the downtown St. Petersburg area even has short-term boat parking for folks that want to get a bit to eat or visit the Salvador Dali museum for a couple of hours.
# 5. Austin, Texas. Austin is part of the Highland Lakes region, which is a part of Texas made up of six lakes that are known for their fishing and boating opportunities. Lake Austin and Lake Travis are two of the most popular lakes in the Austin area. Lake Austin is a great place for watersports like wakeboarding or water skiing, while Lake Travis is more of a place to spend a quiet afternoon cruise.