Spying is set to spark new battle lines in the America’s Cup as tempers fray on Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. At odds are the €90m Italian team Luna Rossa, backed by the Prada luxury goods house, and the San Francisco-based, Lord knows how many millions Oracle team, holders of the cup and backed by computer software billionaire Larry Ellison.

Britain’s Mike Golding is among seven Vendée Globe skippers given time penalties for sailing into the traffic separation lane off Finisterre, but his penalty is just 30 minutes.

The demolition derby aspect of the Vendée Globe round the world race continued to dominate coverage on Sunday as the fifth of the 20 starters limped off the racecourse and a sixth sought to fix a problem which could also force him to retire.

A slew of penalty flags is waving around the Vendée Globe fleet of singlehanders racing non-stop round the world.

Samantha Davies was dismasted 130 miles north-west of Madeira on the sixth day of the Vendée Globe singlehanded non-stop round the world race making her the third person to be forced out.

Kito de Pavant became the second to retire from the Vendée Globe singlehanded non-stop round the world race in the opening 48 hours after colliding with a fishing trawler 45 miles off the coast of Portugal. It was the second time he has been forced to withdraw from a race notorious for the rate of attrition.

Some 20 boats sailed out from the French port of Les Sables d'Olonne on Saturday for the Vendée Globe race, a gruelling three-month circumnavigation of the globe, with Groupe Bel, skippered by France's Kito de Pavant. But the number of racers was reduced by one after less than six hours, when key contender Safran, skippered by Marc Guillemot, was forced to pull out with a broken keel.

Alex Thomson is one of three British solo sailors who started the epic Vendée Globe race yesterday. Last time, his keel fell off...

People power kicked the decision to drop windsurfers from the Olympic sailing line-up into the oblivion of history as rank and file national representatives voted against the council members of the International Sailing Federation at its annual general meeting in Dublin.

“As mayor of Les Sables d’Olonne in 1992, I wondered if I had made a decision which meant that I was sending people to their deaths.”

Northern hemisphere November is not known for its salad days but for Britain’s current queen of ocean racing, fast becoming a French star, it is sunny and fruitful and for three British sailors there is the neck hair raising challenge of taking on 12 Frenchmen, two Swiss, an Italian, a Pole, and a Spaniard in one of the toughest challenges in world sport.

Britain has failed to raise a team for the Youth America's Cup. As the deadline for entries closed on 31 October, all three attempts, one of which planned to race under the Ben Ainslie Racing banner.

Britain has failed to raise a team for the Youth America’s Cup. As the deadline for entries closed on 31 October, all three attempts, one of which planned to race under the Ben Ainslie Racing banner.

Oracle Team USA, defender of the 34 America’s Cup, suffered a second humiliating and expensive setback when it capsized its giant AC72 catamaran on San Francisco Bay during a training session.

Equal on points and beaten only by the tie-break, Ben Ainslie ended a hectic week in San Francisco in second place of the fleet racing at the America’s Cup World Series.