The Girls for Sail team racingDiamonds are Forever- an Elan 37 – in IRC Class 3 may not be staring on the results front at Cowes this week with their string 38 and 39th places, but they are making up for it with the successful launch of their Girls for Sail calendar.

The calendar which features a range of fun, ‘nauti-gal’ sailing photos and, on each page has useful information about how to spot the early signs of cancer, is the brainchild of Annie O’Sullivan owner of the Portsmouth-based company Girls for Sail. Following the sudden death of a close friend and fellow Girls for Sail skipper, O’Sullivan decided to enlist a team of girls, many of whom she’s met through her sailing business, to help her in her quest to raise at least £10,000, and to encourage women to get ‘checked out’. Using her networking skills O’Sullivan managed to fund the project entirely through donations including printing carried out by Andrew Pindar’s printing company, Pindar Alphagraphics.

Chatting at the calendar launch, in Cowes O’Sullivan said if she’d have known a bit more about the signs to watch out for, she feels she could have done a lot more to help her friend. “I thought about it for a long time and rather than just raise money, I wanted to do something to raise awareness. What I learnt from the tragedy of my friend was that if you recognise the signs in your body early enough, you can actually prevent a lot of cancers developing. I had actually seen the signs in her, but didn’t recognise what they were.”

The cancer aware project, entitled ‘Check You Out’ is, according to O’Sullivan, particularly focussed at younger women, which is why the team are in full sail in Cowes wearing their ‘Check me out’ t-shirts. The calendars are available at £5 and you can buy them from anywhere on Cowes High Street. Alternatively go to www.girlsforsail.com for more details.

Elsewhere on the Cowes Week racecourse today Seb Josse on BT, and his all-star team, including celebrity guests Dame Ellen MacArthur and Radio 1 DJ, Rob Da Bank have won the Artemis Challenge.

A decision to re-think today’s Open 60 Artemis Challenge round the island race course was a wise one because the forecast for light, patchy wind ran true and competitors spent the day battling out on a round the cans course in the Eastern Solent rather than slogging it out round the island.

Unfortunately the wind totally disappeared between Portsmouth and Ryde which created a concertina effect on the fleet so the race officers made a decision to base the overall results on the timings round Bembridge Ledge which leftBTtaking an overall win with Mike Sanderson onPindarin second. Simon Clay onArtemis The Profit Hunterwith celebrity guest Bryan Adams on board, were third, while stable mates -Artemis Ocean Racing- with Sam Davies and special guest Zara Phillips finished fourth.