The Caja Mediterráneo Region of Murcia Trophy was presented today at the Cartagena Town Hall. The scheduled racing starts next Tuesday, but the Public Village opens tomorrow (Saturday) on the dockside of Cartagena, offering free access to all of the excitement and information which supports the 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit.

Day Four of Ramsgate Week, sponsored by Vattenfall, saw brisk and varying winds of up to 25 knots and testing conditions. The IRC fleet began the first day of the IRC Regatta Series; a series of seven races. Today they had three windward leeward races which put crew work at a premium.

At the head of the pack for Class 1 was a dual between Richard Matthew's Oystercatcher XXVI and Michel Lefebvre's First 40 Manta Sailing with Oystercatcher XXVI winning the first two races and Manta Sailing the last. Despite close tussles behind, John Barrett's First 35 Stiletto squeezed third place in all three races.

Class 1 Results - Race 1

1 Oystercatcher XXVI (Richard Matthews)

2 Manta Sailing (Michel Lefebvre)

3 Stiletto (John Barrett)

1 Oystercatcher XXVI (Richard Matthews)

2 Manta Sailing (Michel Lefebvre)

3 Stiletto (John Barrett)

A grim overcast start and lumpy wind against tide conditions gave way to brilliant sunshine and a summery finish off the Royal Yacht Squadron for the Rolex Trophy Day inshore race at the 2010 Rolex Commodores’ Cup. Today’s one race was held around multiple marks in the central western Solent starting in 18 knot southwesterlies with a wet beat through short chop before the tide turned and the wind dropped gradually through the race, ending at below 10 knots .

It was another solid day for the Irish team, leaders since the opening day of the regatta last Sunday. Their big boat, Anthony O’Leary’s Ker 39 Antix and their small boat, Robert Davies’ Corby 36 Roxy 6 both won their classes today while David Dwyer’s marinerscove.ie posted a third. No other team was close to being as consistent today.

In the small boat class Roxy 6 came out on top partly thanks to a navigation error on the Hong Kong boat, Christopher Opielok’s Corby 36 Rockall III [at the time of going to press this was subject to a protest for redress]. “We were very lucky,” said Roxy 6’s helmsman Andrew Creighton. “Rockall went to a wrong mark and they were ahead of us. With them making that mistake it obviously pushed us into first, although one of the French guys, Goa, came very close to us, but we had them by about 25 seconds.”

From 5 to 9 October Valencia will host the 2010 TP52 World Championship. The regatta fleet will be based from the Marina Real Juan Carlos I and will compete in up to 10 races, including a Coastal Race. The organisers expect around 10 teams to fight for the world champions title.

Boats have been returning to Cowes Yacht Haven throughout today, back from the offshore race of the 2010 Rolex Commodores’ Cup. With a 2.5x point co-efficient this race had the potential to provide a major upset in the results, but after four days of competition the Irish team hold an even more commanding lead, now up to 29.5 points. Hong Kong has regained second place, this time with a 25-point cushion over the leading French team, which in turn is just 5 points ahead of GBR Red and 15 points ahead of France Yellow in fifth.

Hong Kong and Ireland scored equal points in the offshore race with the former’s Rockall III winning the small boat class while the latter’s marinerscove.ie claimed the mid-sized class.

On the water Rockall III was first home in the whole fleet, crossing the line just to the west of the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour at 10:40:41 BST, winning her class by almost one hour on corrected time. While racing for Hong Kong, where he used to live, Rockall III’s owner Christopher Opielok is German. His crew is largely from Hong Kong but also includes two Dutch, one Irishman and three Australians. According to Opielok he bought his Corby 36 specifically to compete in the Rolex Commodores’ Cup, “we have been preparing for this for a long time. The boat clocked since delivery to us last year, 4,000 miles. We did a lot of offshore racing. We have four very good helmsmen. The navigation was very well prepared. We had a good tactician and I believe altogether with a very good boat, ended up with this result.” - listen to full interview

Day three of Ramsgate Week, sponsored by Vattenfall, saw fleets competing for the famous Noot Cup in the Round the Goodwins race. Sailing conditions were ideal for the renowned 30 mile race, with winds varying between less than 10 knots to over 20 at times. The international fleet of nearly 40 boats, comprising IRC and Cruisers classes, were taken North round the sands and then back up the beach past Deal and Sandwich, before finishing just off Ramsgate. The course was completed in an extremely quick time, with the fastest boat, Icom Assassin, finishing in less than four hours.

IRC Class 1

The X35 Xwaves had a fantastic start and led the Class 1 fleet to the South Goodwin mark. However, Icom Assassin overtook the fleet on the spinnaker run down the back of the sands and was first to South East Goodwins, leading the fleet for the remainder of the race. David Black's First 45.5 Carronade overtook Xwaves on the close fetch, just before Deal, and had a great leg to the finish line, winning the class and the Noot Cup overall. Mike and Jo Brand's Xwaves came second in class and overall, Peter Jackson's Icom Assassin took third place in class, with Stiletto following up the rear.