Three races scheduled for the TP52's and two for the GP42's as a pattern starts to set on the regatta leaderboard.

After a brief postponement on shore by the Race Committee while the wind filled in, it was back to the ocean track for the 35 boats competing in New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex. Two windward/leeward races were held on Rhode Island Sound under less-than-perfect conditions; however the light rain and 4-6 knots of wind challenged tacticians and prompted a shake-up in a few of the standings.

By taking two wins in two races today, Daniel Meyers’s (Boston, Mass.) J/V66 Numbers also took over the IRC Class 1 lead from George David’s (Hartford, Conn.) Rambler. The 90-footer dropped into second position. Ray Roberts’s (Sydney, Australia) STP65 Evolution Racing is in third.

In IRC Class 3, Steve Benjamin’s (South Norwalk, Conn.) Robotic Oncology held onto its lead by winning both races. With four wins in five races, the Tripp 41 has a four-point lead on Arethusa, Philip Lotz’s (Newport, R.I.) NYYC Swan 42 that won the distance race. “In today’s first race we didn’t have a great start, but we were able to clear out and get into phase,” said Benjamin of the four-leg windward/leeward race. “By halfway up the first weather leg we were in the lead and from there we just extended.”

(Photo - Guido Trombetta_Studio Borlenghi/Audi MedCup)

The lure of the Monsoon Sailing School has proved irresistible to Australia’s Olympic champions Tessa Parkinson and Belinda Stowell, who have come on board as coaches.

Parkinson, who won Olympic gold in the 470 class with Elise Rechichi in China two years ago, is one of five coaches for the four-day Monsoon Sailing School which will be opened by the Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek next Thursday.

Stowell was a gold medalist in the 470 Class with Jenny Armstrong at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She is currently the head coach of sailing at the Western Australian Institute of Sport.

In contrast to yesterday’s overcast skies and light rain, today’s sunshine and vigorous winds brought smiles to the sailors onboard 35 boats competing in New York Yacht Club's (NYYC) seventh biennial Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex. It was a perfect day for NYYC’s Race Committee to send the fleet, all sailing under the IRC handicap rating, on a distance race starting in Newport Harbor, then out on Rhode Island Sound toward Block Island and finally finishing on Narragansett Bay near Quonset Point. With a steady 10-12 knots of breeze and a sea much more settled than yesterday, there could be no finer day for a tour of local waters.

“It was very challenging, very exciting and the high point of the regatta for me,” said Peter Cummiskey, the regatta chair who is crewing aboard Rives Potts’s Carina in IRC 5. “It was a real distance race. We had to go out into the ocean and back into the Bay, so the tactics changed from leg to leg. Not only were there marks we had to honor, but there were some we didn’t have to, so the navigational challenges were intense.” He went on to give credit to Carina’s navigator Brad Dellenbaugh, who is NYYC’s Sailing Director, for his ability to “get us up close and personal, within a stone’s throw of Castle Hill.”

Quantum Racing (USA) emerged as overall leaders of the Camper Regatta – Conde de Godó Trophy – Barcelona after opening with two fifth places and a second on what proved an especially testing first day of racing as the Audi MedCup Circuit competes for the first time ever off the Catalan capital.

As an introduction to a new venue nothing was gained easily in the moderate 9-13 knots NE'ly breezes. With the start line set directly in front of where the Olympic village was for the 1992 Olympic Games, relatively close to the shore, there was an awkward choppy sea kicked back off the beach to contend with. The variable cloud cover moved the wind around from time to time, the breeze varied in strength across the course and the racing for the most part was extremely close with small errors punished heavily in the intense competition.

(Photo - Laser Performance)

If you have ever wanted to go sailing at Cowes Week but you have limited or no sailing experience, now is your chance! LaserPerformance and Cowes based Pelican Racing have joined forces to return Come Racing to Cowes Week 2010.

Come Racing will run from 4pm on Saturday 31st July to Thursday 5th August 2010 and offers the opportunity for non-racing visitors to Cowes Week the opportunity to take to the water and get involved in the action.

Ten Laser SB3 sportsboats will be available each day for a fantastic “have a go” opportunity. No sailing experience is necessary as each boat will be helmed by an RYA qualified skipper. All participants need to do is bring a pair of soft soled shoes with them, everything else will be provided on the day.