A boy of 14, his father and an elderly woman died in a head-on car crash which left the teenager's mother and nine-year-old sister seriously injured, police said.

Olympic champion Ben Ainslie was given the go-ahead for his bid for a fourth consecutive gold on the home waters of Weymouth in July/August – he also has a silver – as the sport’s world governing body, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), said it would impose no further punishment for his disqualification from the world championship in December.

I've not heard much about him before...

The crunch confrontation between organisers of next year’s America’s Cup and local opponents of a $55m waterfront redevelopment was avoided in San Francisco when a revised plan was announced by the mayor, Edwin M. Lee.

Hetairos, the 214-foot superyacht skippered by Vincent Fauquenoy, was first to finish the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Caribbean 600 in Antigua in an elapsed time of 2 days 2 hours 39 minutes and 32 seconds. But this was well outside the record set by Rambler 100 last year, which capsized in the Fastnet Race last August.

Paul Lawrie is back in the world top 50 for the first time since 2003, after he won his second Qatar Masters title yesterday. The 43-year-old Scot (above) chipped in twice in a brilliant closing 65 to beat the Australian Jason Day and Swede Peter Hanson by four.

Ernie Els and Retief Goosen did battle at Fancourt again yesterday, but this time found themselves out-gunned by the new star of South African golf.

In a slug it out, last man standing confrontation between rival members of a British squad that is eclipsing the rest of the world, the Finn class world championship, one of 10 being staged off Fremantle, W. Australia, saw reigning Olympic champion Ben Ainslie grab a slender lead over reigning European champion Giles Scott.

The threat of piracy has forced one of the top events in world yachting to change route to protect the competitors from the possibility of kidnap or murder.

Records smashed, boats smashed, but people safe in the 44th Rolex Fastnet Race. The 2007 record of 44 hours and 18 minutes was chopped by one hour and thirty-nine minutes as British Olympic medal winner Ian Walker brought Abu Dhabi’s Volvo race entry Azzam over the finish line just in time for breakfast.

Abu Dhabi’s new, American-designed yacht for the Volvo round the world race was unveiled in the exclusive resort of Portofino, not far from where it was built in Italy, and starts a 2,000-mile qualification sail to Cascais, near Lisbon, on Thursday.

Spain has sold to the Chinese team in the upcoming Volvo round the world race one of the boats it had been expected to race in November.