Sailing: Downpour fails to dampen spirits

Plans to end the Skandia Life Cowes Week with a £30,000 bang were given a drenching of the very penetrating variety of rain yesterday, though it would take more than that to prevent the traditional evening firework display. The wind was also in tricky mood, blowing freshly in the morning in the eastern Solent but petering out on the start line off the Royal Yacht Squadron as eyes were lifted to the heavens for the forecast sunshine. The X One Design racing was abandoned.

It typified what has been a stop/start sort of a week. Light airs and postponements, added to a largely home-grown entry, have contributed to a more laidback atmosphere ashore though there has, as always, been some fiercely competitive stuff out on the water.

Still, they must be doing something right as Doug Jarvis, of the Royal Geelong Yacht Club, wants to take the Cowes race director Stuart Quarrie and the sponsors Skandia to Melbourne to bolt on some of the thinking down under.

Meanwhile, the head to head between the Farr 52s lived up to expectations. Jeremy Robinson secured the Britannia Cup for Nick Hewson's Team Tonic, while the needle between Peter Harrison's – he of GBR America's Cup dreams – Chernikeeff 2 and Bear of Britain, yesterday steered by Chris Law for Tim Louis and Kit Hobday, showed no sign of abating. There were protest flags flying after the first mark.

The Rocking Chair Trophy went to Ben Ainslie, his second trophy of the week for the 70-foot Volvo for Life. Peter Scholfield kept the 35-foot Dogtag in line for the top boat in the Black Group. It is named after the travel insurance guarantee you wear round your neck. And the Dunfermline-based Sonata, So, with six straight wins after Pizzicato was penalised on Thursday, duly claimed White Group supremacy for Neil McLure and Keith Stewart.

Agreement has finally been reached in Auckland on a "supplementary deed of indemnity" for the Arbitration Panel which sits in judgment on complaints from the nine challengers for the America's Cup and the defenders, Team New Zealand. They are now protected from lawsuits and claims for damages. This should allow an early release of its views on claims that the Seattle-based OneWorld syndicate broke protocol rules on technology transfer and, in the case of those claims being upheld, what penalties should be imposed. In theory those judgments cannot be appealed.