The pair finished 14th overall in the 470 class at the Sail for Gold regatta in Weymouth at the weekend.

Sarah announced she was entering the category with Clark in April - a switch from yngling, the class in which she won her Olympic gold medals.

Ayton told BBC Essex: "Saskia has a lot of experience in the boat, which is great for me being new in the class."

The 30-year-old won her first gold at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and was part of the crew dubbed 'three blondes in a boat' with Shirley Robertson and Sarah Webb.

She went on to win another gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, again in the yngling class.

Clark also competed at Beijing, finishing sixth in the 470 class with Christina Bassadone.

In their first interview with the BBC since the pair got on the water together, Clark, 31, was confident of success with her new team-mate.

Read the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/sailing/8917629.stm

Giles Scott's first victory over triple gold medallist Ben Ainslie was an important development in his Olympic ambitions but the pressure is now on the talented 23 year-old to stay ahead of Ainslie and win qualification for London 2012.

If he had achieved victory in the Finn class against a fully prepared Ainslie, the claim that a new era in British Olympic sailing had dawned would hold water, according to Skandia Team GBR manager Stephen Park.

"Ben had not been sailing much in the Finns so Giles always knew this was his opportunity to get in front of him. Now he has to stay in front of him," Park said.

Scott won Britain's only gold medal at Skandia Sail for Gold on Saturday despite finishing in eighth place in the final Finn race for 10 finalists from the week's racing in Weymouth Bay, the venue for Olympic sailing in 2012. Ainslie finished fourth, just 6.4 points behind Scott.

Although Britain, the most successful Olympic sailing nation of the last three Games, took eight medals, half were bronze indicating a drop in performance.

"We were a bit disappointed but if we had medalled in the Star and Women's Match Racing classes, as we had expected, things would have looked different," said Park.

Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson, who like Ainslie have been racing with Team Origin on the TP52 circuit, finished seventh in the Stars while Lucy MacGregor and her crew were fifth in the match racing.

"We are two years out from the Olympics and these results will ensure this is no complacency," Park added.

Saturday morning saw one of the Solent's most eccentric traditions - the Brambles Bank cricket match.

Hamble's Royal Southern Yacht Club and Cowes's Island Sailing Club played their annual game with spring tides at their lowest ebb and the bank drying out for a limited time.

Hundreds of spectators are expected to attend the match, which was due to begin at 0830 in the middle of one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

The 'hosts' of the game are also always the winner of the game so this year, whatever happens, Island SC will win, with rules arbitrary.

Last year to ensure Royal Southern, whose team included Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Geoff Holt, were victorious, Island SC were fined 200 runs for not wearing whites.

After the game everyone heads to Cowes for a hearty breakfast and to toast the host's inevitable victory.

Ireland take day one with three Irish boats winning their classes in the first race.

With two windward-leeward races held in the eastern and central Solent, the three Irish boats finished victorious winning in each of their classes in the first race.

In the second race, the team's otherwise perfect scoreline was only tarnished by their mid-sized boat, David Dwyer's Mills 39 Marinerscove.ie, posting a second. With six days of competition left, the Irish, on 7 points, already hold a huge lead over the defending champions, GBR Red and Hong Kong, tied on 23. Previous experience will not allow the Irish to get carried away just yet.

The Solent started out grey and miserable today but the sun broke through mid-morning with a 10 knot northwesterly and a strong eastbound tide. For race two the Race Committee moved the race area to just east of the Brambles Bank to minimise the tide and for this the wind had veered into the northeast and built, at times gusting up to 20 knots.

In this opening day of competition for mainly Corinthian crews, with only one or two professionals allowed on each boat, some cobwebs were being blown out with a number of sail handling errors evident and even a collision during a port-starboard incident in race two between two mid-sized boats - Francois Lognone's Nutmeg IV in France White and Paul Turner's Grand Soleil 43 Artemis in GBR Black. The French subsequently admitted their mistake - explaining that they lacked steerage to avoid the incident. While they came out unscathed, unfortunately Artemis was holed and is having to be repaired overnight. Both yachts retired from race two.

Followers of this event will know that Ireland leading after day one is a regular feature of recent Rolex Commodores' Cups. The Irish have been favourites going into the last three events, but they have never before made such a strong impression on the event so soon.

Read the full story here: http://www.yachtingworld.com/news/495738/rolex-commodores-cup-opening-day

Charley Cook (USA) is the ISAF Principal Race Officer (PRO) at the 2010 Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta. He will also be the (PRO) for the 2012 Olympic Games Sailing Competition to be held in Weymouth in just under two year’s time.

Cook has a team of International Technical Officials (ITO) and Course Race Officials (CRO) to manage the final regatta of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Weymouth. There are seven race courses in Weymouth and nearly 700 boats so this is a major test for this highly experienced team. The key objective, Cook points out, is to provide consistent and fair racing at all Sailing World Cup (SWC) regattas.

'Every SWC this year has appointed a (PRO) from a small group developed by ISAF, and the concept was to have a (PRO) who is not from the host country to make sure the events run consistently on the water at all SWC events.'
The race officials appointed by ISAF travel from all over the globe to gain experience and take part in some of the biggest and most important sailing regattas in the world.

From this pool of officials some of the best are chosen to officiate at the Olympic Games. This is a very important accolade of which any race official can be very proud.

Cook explains, 'Events like this are an opportunity to bring officials from parts of the world where they would not get the chance to learn the skills required to officiate at major events. They can then take this knowledge back home and use it in practice at local regattas. That is good for sailors worldwide.'

This year’s Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta is also an informal test event in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games. So two years out, what is his view on preparations ahead of the Olympic Regatta from a race management perspective?

Read the full story here: http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=73324&refre=y&ntid=0

Paralympic sailors Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell secured silver in the Skud class, as did John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas in the Sonars.

But the week-long regatta culminates in nine Olympic medal races on Satuday, giving Britain the chance of 10 more medals, including a possible gold, silver and bronze in the fiercely contested Finn class.

Ben Ainslie, who has not been beaten at any Finn regatta since May 2004, lies second with his younger rival Giles Scott leading by 16 points going into the final race, which counts for double points.

Medal chances also exist in the 470 men’s, 49er and laser classes, though Beijing gold medallists Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson are are out of contention in the Star class and Lucy MacGregor and her women's match racing team were also ruled out after being beaten by American skipper Anna Tunnicliffe in the quarter finals on Friday.

Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes are the form 470 Women's crew going into Saturday's race after posting two seconds yesterday but Alison Young failed to qualify for the Laser Radial medal race, finishing just out of contention in 11th place.

For Skandia Team GBR the big story is that of talented 23 year old Finn sailor Giles Scott who in the last five races has posted a 1-1-4-3-2 and has now taken the lead by a point from France’s Jonathan Lobert. Ed Wright is now into third, followed by last year’s winner, Croat Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic with Ben Ainslie into fifth. The Brits have four sailors in the top 10.

“It’s great but I’ve got to be quite careful with that as I’ve got an OCS still so I can’t afford to have any mistakes tomorrow,” said Scott. “Hopefully I’ll be able to do the same as today. There is a bit of pressure on but hopefully I’ll be able to take it in my stride.”

Scott relishes the strong British competition in the Finn fleet. “It’s great. We’re all such good friends as well, we all train together, so I think we push each other quite hard and normally it ends up with us all somewhere around the top ten which is great.

“It is frustrating that only one of us will get to go to the Games, but the good thing about being such a strong nation is that if you do gain selection then you are going to a strong favourite going into the Olympics. You’ve got the best sort of people to train with.”
Scott insists he’s not phased by Ainslie’s Olympic pedigree. “I get asked that quite a lot – I try and ignore it as he’s just another Finn sailor to me!”

Read the full story here: http://www.thedailysail.com/dinghy/10/56321/skandia-sail-for-gold-report?utm_...

Ben Ainslie's concerns over his fitness were borne out by a series of disappointing results at the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta in Weymouth on Thursday where the breeze proved too strong for his underweight frame.

The triple Olympic gold medallist was suffering from fatigue before racing started following three demanding days racing his Finn for the first time in two years. Twenty-knot winds proved draining for Ainslie, who is more than a stone lighter than his ideal Finn racing weight because his other racing commitments have required him to weigh less.

He has not been beaten in an Olympic classes regatta since May 2004 and although lying fifth overall, 14.4 points behind class leader and British rival Giles Scott, he remains on course to make the medal race on Saturday as one of the top 10 Finn competitors in the regatta.

The Finn sailors have engaged in close racing. Ed Wright, another contender for London 2012, is third with one more day to qualify for the medal race.

Paul Goodison lost the lead in the Laser class while Saskia Clark, racing with Sarah Ayton, was 19th overall in the 470 women’s class.

Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell rose one place to third in the 49er class with Nic Asher and Elliot Willis fourth.

Lucy MacGregor and her women’s match racing team finished the second flight of her quarter-final trailing US skipper Anna Tunnicliffe 2-0 and carrying a penalty in the best-of-five series.

Intrepid, the South African yacht that shot to fame after being jumped on by a juvenile southern Right whale, is back in the water.

Ralph Mothes and Paloma Werner were 100m away on their 10m steel training yacht in Table Bay, when it began a series of breaches and dives over while swimming straight for them.

‘How we did not get hurt is a miracle,' said Ms Werner. ‘Thank God he hit the mast. Two metres further back and he would have been on top of us. Apparently he did not see us as the visibility is poor and we were sailing so had not the motor on. He was just having fun. The folly of youth!'

‘We have subsequently been told by whale experts that the whales have poor eyesight,’ Mr Mothes told SA-People magazine. ‘Had we put our engines on it probably would not have happened.’

The couple, who run Cape Town Sailing Academy, replaced the yacht’s mast and rigging and repaired damage to the coachroof in time for a Competent Crew course over the weekend - less than three weeks after the incident happened.

It was a day when the trapdoor opened - we're at the end of the opening rounds of Skandia Sail for Gold 2010. The Gold fleets will be separated out, and today we get down to the business end of the regatta. If you went through the trapdoor into the silver fleet today, there's no way back. Meanwhile, at the top end the high-fliers from the first three days were roped up and hauled back into the pack - the leaderboard has got tighter almost everywhere.

If you want to see some seriously intense competition, look no further than the Women's 470 fleet. World Champions, Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout overhauled the Japanese pair of Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata today - and they did it despite a black flag disqualification in the first race - going on to win the second. They say that champions are measured by their response to adversity, and if so, these two are real champions.

Westerhof said afterwards, "Everyone is sailing really up and down and the fleet isn't very consistent, apart from the Japanese who are having a good series. Although we haven't been consistent, we have managed to get to the top, but it doesn't feel like it. We have had an OCS (over the start line early) and finished 18th in a race on the first day, so we need to work on that, but the result at the minute is great."

Westerhof and Berkhout count two firsts and two seconds with that DSQ and 18th - but headline interest in this fleet goes further down the scoring list. Ingrid Petitjean and Nadarge Douroux lead French compatriots Emmanuelle Rol and Helene Defrance by one point in the the ISAF Sailing World Cup standings, and by just one place in the regatta - they are fourth and fifth.

We talked about three (other) French teams yesterday, all with exceptional leads in their fleets - and while all of them held onto those leads, it was a struggle. In the Men's 470, Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos scored a 12th and a second, and are now just two points ahead of Australian World Champions, Matt Belcher and Malcolm Page. And it's a hot Aussie breath on the back of French necks. "We're having a good regatta," said Belcher, "we got two seconds today and things are going well.

Obviously we've won the [ISAF Sailing] World Cup and the World Championships, so it's been a great year and we never expected to be able to head into this event with the World Cup title wrapped up, so it's a great position to be in."


It the 49er, Frenchmen Manu Dyen and Stephane Christidis had recorded a 2, 2, 2, 1, 1 up to this morning, but today they could only add a third and an eleventh.

The chasing Kiwis, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, didn't fair much better with a second and a 14th, and now find themselves just one point ahead of both their cross-Tasman rivals, Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, and the British team of Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes. The latter crew had an outstanding day with a first and a third, and Morrison said afterwards, ‘It wasn't very easy to make big gains, it was tough on the start and it was generally one sided, and pretty much down to boat speed.' Clearly, the British pair weren't lacking in that commodity today.

In the Finn, the French high-flier yesterday was Jonathan Lobert, with a first and two seconds. But overnight, three of the major contenders, Ben Ainslie, Dan Slater and Ed Wright got awarded average points for yesterday's race, because of confusion over a change of course. The trio got those average points calculated on all their other races up to the end of today. So Ben Ainslie promptly went out and scored two seconds - hitting the kind of form that's won him more Finn bling than we can count. And so he's now up to second, 5.5 points behind Lobert...

The Skud-18 got back on the water today, after missing out yesterday when the breeze made sailing impossible. And Aussies, Daniel Fitzgibbon and Rachael Cox also had an outstanding day with three bullets to take a three point lead from the Brits, Alexandra Rickham and Nikki Birrell. Elsewhere there was another solid performance from Irishmen Peter O'Leary and Frithjof Kleen in the Star. The early leaders, Kiwi America's Cup stars Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk, have faded badly to drop to ninth, leaving the Irish team clear by eight points from Swedes, Fredrik Loof and Johan Tillander.

In the Men's RS:X, Brit Nick Dempsey now leads overall after a great day, scoring a first and a second. Dempsey's agreed with his compatriot, Stevie Morrison (49er) about the start, "The difficult thing today was the starts, you could win or lose the race by the way you performed on the line so it was really important to ensure a safe start." And finally, we can't leave without a nod to the Laser Radial fleet, who were out there till late afternoon before they could get off the start line cleanly. No shortage of competitive athletes then, with Dutch girl, Marit Bouwmeester, now even at the top of the leaderboard with France's Sophie de Turckheim.