I liked Mike Golding’s comments today from the TJV race course. He plainly bridled at Michel Desjoyeaux’s remark that Ecover’s 100-mile lead over him was down to their spinnakers, and came straight back with a typical Golding retort along the lines of: “No, those were the 100 extra miles you sailed going back and forth to the African coast!”

I also smiled at his equally forthright insight into co-skipper Bruno Dubois’ learning curve. Bruno is a sailmaker from North, and is one of the few to go out there and, as they say, eat his own dog food.

“We have got some sails on board which work really well but are way too heavy. [Bruno] knows why they are way too heavy because he is having to lug them around. And we have got sails on board which, frankly, don’t work terribly well. On paper they fill the area cross-over and in reality they don’t work that well. But we have predominantly had success with the programme, so we think the kites are very good.”

Photo by Mark Lloyd