Monday, August 30th, 2010
Volvo Open 70 Teléfonica Azul crossed the Royal Yacht Squadron Line to claim second place in the 2010 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race. Teléfonica Azul  finished the race well inside the old record. They started the race like a bat out of hell, screaming down the Solent at over 25 knots, but a rigging problem meant that they were overtaken by Groupama and they never managed to catch them. Teléfonica Azul crewman, Neal McDonald, describes the turning point in the race:
Groupama 70
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
At 14:00 BST the vast majority of the fleet were in the remotest corner of the North Sea, hundreds of miles from any city and well offshore. The barren coastline of northeast Scotland was the nearest landfall. In essence, they were very much out on their own.

Race leader Groupama had managed to struggle past the light winds around the Isle of Lewis and into fresher north easterly breeze. Getting to the breeze first means that they have opened up an 18 mile lead on rivals Telefónica Azul.
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
At 09:03:55 GMT yesterday (24/08/10) skipper Sidney Gavignet (FRA) onboard OMAN AIR MAJAN  crossed the finish line off Lizard Point, Cornwall to smash the single handed Round Britain and Ireland record.  The A100 trimaran broke the existing record held by Thomas Coville by a massive 1 day 15 hours 30 minutes and 44 seconds. This also means Sidney has beaten the existing fully crewed record time by 1 hour and 7 seconds. This record was set by Steve Fosset onboard Playstation in 2002.
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Take the oldest sporting trophy in the world. Add two multi-millionaires, each with an axe to grind and you end up with the costliest pissing contest the planet has ever hosted.

Early budget estimates put Alinghi's expenses in the region of $47m. Ellison stated in an interview that the BMW Oracle budget was in the vicinity of $200m. Whether these figures are anywhere near what was actually spent, we will more than likely never know.
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