Sailing: Greenhalgh powers to Challenge Cup win

Fresh from skippering the British entry Panther to fourth overall in the Tour de France à la Voile, Rob Greenhalgh last night had his hands on the New York Yacht Club Challenge Cup, one of the two top trophies in Cowes Week.

Greenhalgh was at the helm of the Ker 11.3 Kung Fu Fighter with the core of his Tour crew and will be aboard the same boat as part of the Commonwealth team in next week's Commodores' Cup. In that event it will be skippered by Nick Harrison, the son of the America's Cup challenge boss, Peter Harrison, who will captain the team in his 52-footer Chernikeeff 2. Last year, when the boat was called On a High, it won the Queen's Cup.

After being denied by just one second from winning the Britannia Cup the day before, Mark Campbell-James drove Bear of Britain to victory in the class zero big boat class, but the smaller boats, starting a vital 10 minutes later and enjoying the developing fresher breezes, took the top three cup slots, as Campbell-James fell to fourth once the class one results were included.

The first beat was a bit of a nightmare, but Ben Ainslie and the tactician Ossie Stewart, on Volvo for Life, made the correct decision to dive over to the island side – as had Bear – and left the rest of the fleet standing. It was not enough. "There was nothing we could do," Ainslie said, "but we performed well and it was a great day's sail." Ironically, Greenhalgh credited choosing the mainland shore for the run home as the vital advantage.

After four successive wins, the run of the Scottish pair Neil McLure and Keith Stewart from Dunfermline was broken as their Sonata, So, was second to Tom White and Simon Townsend's Pizzicato.