(fused)

I watched the medal race for the Finn class sailing today, or rather yesterday, as it is (it’s just gone midnight). I watched Ben Ainslie take victory, and gold, his third, making him the most successful British Olympic sailor of all time.

He didn’t even need to win the last race to get gold, just come close-ish to an American sailor, Zach Railey. But he won anyway, leading right from the first leg, and staying well ahead. It was especially noticable on his third leg, into the wind, how at one with the boat he was, skimming and then riding the waves with ease, barely even bothering to look back, he had such a lead.

I also watched some of the 49er racing, and that was true carnage. I couldn’t find anything picture or coverage wise unfortunately, if something does show up then I’ll link to it - most of the sailors (the worlds best) in the 49ers capsized, and some broke stuff, including the people who were in the running for gold, who snapped a mast, dashed back to shore and grabbed a non medal-race competitors boat, came back out, started 5 minutes late and still went on to win gold (I think). It looked pretty insane out there, and I’d loved to have been there watching it from the spectator boats - I’m determined to be watching in 2012, from wherever in the UK they sail!

I’ve just been watching the Ladies Olympic Radial sailing, and the second race (I didn’t see the first) of today, was pretty special.

We all watched the big countries fighting at the front, but at the first mark, suddenly another boat that nobody thought of or commented on appeared and passed first. The Paraguay sailor took a massive gamble and went a very long way to one side of the course after an awful start, and it turns out that she paid off. She lead most of the race, dropping one place to France towards the end, and picked up a second, which is an amazing result.

Returning to the first race, Penny Clark, the British sailor,  took second with a solid start, which is great news, and hopefully she’ll still be on course for a medal, even after the less-than-amazing placing in the second race.

Photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images

I found the photo on the Guardian website, covering the first race.

Britain are seventh in the medals table as of today, with two golds and a bronze.

Today I sailed in the Dovey Chart, a special ‘fun race’ held once a year where I sail. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos (I’m hoping to get some from the safety boat guy), but it was really good fun.

Basically, the race deviates from pretty much every sailing rule there is, the objective is to get around a mark (buoy) and come back as fast as possible, via any method, provided you don’t use an engine or wheels. We ended up running along the shore with the boat alongside a lot, because it was faster than trying to sail in the conditions.

In the end, we (myself and the person I sailed with, Tom) won by quite a convincing margin, after battling more or less every other boat (team?) that entered. It was amazing fun.

Hopefully, when I get hold of Des, I’ll be able to post some photos either in this post or seperately, and then you’ll get a bit of an idea of how it all worked. It was a lot more fun than it sounds, honest ;)

A biodiesel-powered trimaran has just completed the fastest round the world trip in a speedboat, breaking the previous record by an amazing 14 days.

Braving pirates, storms and floating logs, the team made it all the way around the world on recycled cooking fat, arriving back at a Spanish port yesterday. I guess this isn’t really sailing, as I categorized it, but it’s close.

It took the EarthRace team 11 minutes short of 61 days to get around, breaking the previous record set by Cable and Wireless Adventurer a decade ago. The team comprises of two Britons, a New Zealander and a Swede, with Pete Bethune, the New Zealander, as the skipper. It is his second attempt.

The EarthRace left on the 21st of April, and immediately ran into troubled waters, the autopilot broke, meaning the boat had to be steered 24 hours a day, and fresh food supplies were left behind.

The EarthRace boat has a clever design, which means that instead of bouncing over waves and slowing down, it cuts through them, maintaining speed, but making it a very rocky ride, and much more difficult to control. There’s a picture I found on the Guardian website below.

I guess all thats left to be said is a huge well done to the crew, who battled massive problems, and still made it.