Team New Zealand extend lead

(IAN ROMAN/AUDI MEDCUP)

Hi-jinx at sea and shenanigans ashore as Emirates Team New Zealand saw its grip slip in the long race of the Audi MedCup but immediately plunged back into the centre of the action in the form of the America's Cup.

While the cup holder, Switzerland's Alinghi, and its would-be predator, the San Francisco-based BMW Oracle, are at legal daggers drawn and due to go head to head on the water in February, they are sitting at the same table in a series of meetings – the latest in Marseille today - to put the other frozen teams back in business. Frozen out the others may be; supine they refuse to be.

Leading the discussions are Grand Dalton for TNZ and that redoubtable sailing impresario, Bruno Trouble. Both Alinghi and Oracle took part in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series last February, organised in Dalton's Auckland backyard.

Britain's Team Origin was also racing down under and has been attending the meetings – there was another last week in Paris – along with representatives from Italy, Germany, and France. The Spanish are no longer involved; many others have their hands in the air. Alinghi accepted an invitation to sit in.

Stuart Alexander talks to a seriously happy Terry Hutchinson.