Sailing: Cayard takes up gauntlet

PAUL CAYARD said yesterday that he would continue with the task of trying to put together the 1995 America's Cup challenge by the Europa Yacht Club, despite the suicide in Italy of his syndicate's boss, Raul Gardini. The French-American was speaking after winning the British One-Ton Regatta on Brava Q8, the yacht he will skipper for Italy in the Admiral's Cup which starts on Thursday.

Organisational confusion surrounded Davide Degenarro's Larouge, the winner of the World Two-Ton Cup for the second consecutive time.

At first the Royal Ocean Racing Club announced that the New Zealander Neville Crichton's Shockwave had won after crossing the line third at the end of the final 12-hour race. However, Shockwave's crew said they had finished fourth, a claim supported by the boats ahead of them.

The arbitrators found that the finish line had been diagonal, rather than square, to the course. Athough this breaks no rules, the jury made Germany's Rubin third, and Shockwave fourth. That - by a quarter of a point after seven races - put the Italian boat at the top of the standings.

BRITISH ONE-TON REGATTA (Cowes) Final positions (five races, one discard): 1 Brava Q8 (It) P Cayard 38.5; 2 Pinta (Ger) W Ullrich 32.5; 3 Thomas I-Punkt (Ger) T Freise 31; 4 Ninja (Aus) G Bourke 29.25; 5 Corum Diamant (Fr) M Bouet 29; 6 Jameson I (Irl) H Cudmore 24. 8 GBE International (GB) G Charles 18.

TWO-TON WORLD CUP (Cowes) Final positions: 1 Larouge (It) D Degennaro, 42.25pts; 2 Shockwave (NZ) N Crichton 42; 3 Rubin XII (Ger) H Otto Schumann 28; 4 Corum Rubis (Fr) M Kermerec 27; 5 Great News II (Aus) J Calvert-Jones 25.25; 6 Swing (Japan) S Suzuki 24.63; 7 Provezza (Turk) E Imre 21.25.

The skipper Glyn Charles confirmed yesterday that Adrian Stead would join him as tactician on the British Admiral's Cup team one-tonner GBE International.