Puma leads by a whisker

Puma is leading by a whisker in what is expected to be a cold, harsh, fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race to Qingdao in China. I sailed with the Puma crew a few days ago in Singapore and their preparation looked superb. Team Origin member Rob Greenhalgh has fitted in well, trimming the main. Imagine a concentrated 2,500 mile sprint with no let up the whole way.

"It’s ridiculous," says Ken Read, Puma's skipper. "Every moment of the day at sea is spent trying to make the boat run fast. We get three hour position reports so the intensity is maintained the whole time. It’s like a day race that just happens to last weeks at a time."

Baranson record attempt fails

Hats off to Richard Branson and his son and daughter for having the guts to kick off their record breaking attempt on the Atlantic ahead of one hell of a storm that wrecked the bid.

Yes, they were in the hands of an extremely experienced crew, headed by Mike Sanderson, director of Team Origin, and it was the weight of that experience that probably led to them taking a risk with the weather that, had they pulled it off, would have ensured a fast crossing.

But on a boat built for speed, like Virgin Money, there is nowhere to hide and nowhere to find any comfort; so, if they didn't know what they were in for before hand, they certainly do now.

"We have had an eventful trip with waves up to 40 feet, gale force winds between force 7 and 9. We got taken by one massive monster wave, which approached us from behind and took one of our life rafts. Fortunately all the crew were harnessed in, so everybody was safe," said Branson.

The storm blew out a spinnaker and ripped the mainsail beyond an easy repair so the team had no option but to abandon the attempt. The boat is heading for Bermuda.

The team hasn't ruled out another attempt this year if the conditions allow. "The boat will be ready to sail again in the next few weeks, and it’s possible that there might be one week left this season, " says Branson "otherwise it will be spring before it can go again. But everybody on board the boat is committed to get the record. The boat did well but the conditions were too bad for the boat to bear."

I heard the other day that Alex Johnson, the 42-year-old hedge fund manager who owns the 99ft Virgin Money, formerly called Speedboat, ordered the £7.4m yacht without mentioning anything to his wife until he had taken delivery. I can believe it. If you're reading this Mrs Johnson, he's in Bermuda!

iShares Cup, Amsterdam

All that wind in the past few weeks and when you need a good breeze it disappears. It's like mid-summer today in the Amsterdam canal basin where 10 Extreme-40 catamarans are competing in the final round of the iShares Cup.

The only teams with a chance of winning the series are Alinghi and Team Origin and up to half way through the programme, Alinghi look to be breezing it, which, given the light airs, is hardly the right choice of adjective.

I spent some time this morning floating around on Team Origin with a star-studded cast of sailors including three Olympic Gold medalists, Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy and Andrew "Bart" Simpson, joined on the boat by Sir Keith Mills, the team principal.

Mills has been working behind the scenes helping to broker a deal on the America's Cup between Ernesto Bertorelli and Larry Ellison.

He seems optimistic that the two businessmen who have been at the centre of protracted legal action over the future of the race, will come to an accommodation before the next court hearing in the New Year.

So will the next event be multi-hulled or single-hulled? It's too early to say but most people I have spoken with think it's inconceivable that the future of the event will not consist of a single-hulled challenge competition preceding a two-boat sail off for the cup itself. Mills still believes the challengers will be racing against each other next year, culminating in a cup race in 2011.

And what of the two big multi-hulls that have been built for BMW Oracle and Alinghi? Mills thinks they will make fine museum pieces. What a ridiculous waste of time and money.