Donal Lenihan looks at three key areas the Lions must address.

More emphasis on quality race management, a flavour of America’s Cup,and a mix of fun and safety for the junior fleets are in store at Cork Dinghy Fest that gets underway tomorrow and continues over the weekend at Crosshaven.

When the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the custodians of the world’s oldest professional golf championship (the Open Championship), confirmed last week that it was severing its 60-year exclusive TV partnership with the BBC in favour of Sky, it divided opinion amongst those most qualified to talk on the subject.

Former Round the World race skipper and professional sailor Joe English has died, aged 58.

Clive Brittain feels Rizeena is “a bit special” as she aims to land a second Group One of the season in the Shadwell Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket today.

Skipper Jimmy Spithill insists his Oracle Team USA are still the underdogs despite recording their sixth and seventh straight wins to take the America’s Cup to a decider against Emirates Team New Zealand.

Kinsale is buzzing this weekend as yachts from across the globe dock for the IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championships.

America’s Cup regatta director Iain Murray has revealed former Olympic champion Andrew Simpson died after being trapped under his AC72 catamaran when it nosedived during a manoeuvre that required it to change direction.

Royal Yachting Association Olympic manager Stephen Park says the death of Andrew Simpson has been like losing a family member, with the news leaving the British sailing team feeling “broken”.

If, as Buggles once said, video really did kill the radio star, then TV has done something equally harmful to a whole host of sportsmen and women whose efforts habitually disappear into a black hole of general apathy.

Dutch entry Tonnerre de Breskens, owned by Piet Vroon, continued its foray into Irish waters this week by opening class zero at Cork Week with two emphatic race wins.

SO round-the-world ticket sales are slow in the recession.

Fernando Alonso enjoyed what Ferrari described as “a reasonable day” after leading the way at the end of practice for the European Grand Prix.

LEWIS HAMILTON claims consistency over the closing races will be key to winning this year’s Formula One world title. Following a three-week summer break, the F1 circus pitches up on virgin territory in Valencia for Sunday’s European Grand Prix.

British Formula One star Lewis Hamilton was involved in an another high speed collision – but this time it was on the water in the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race.

ALINGHI won the America’s Cup to become the first European team to defend sailing’s most prestigious prize.

Emirates Airline will sponsor the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and the Filly & Mare Turf at Belmont Park on October 29 in a multi-year deal.

New Zealand broadcaster Paul Holmes, who gained notoriety for calling United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan a “cheeky darkie”, has quit his top-rating television current affairs show.

Sydney Opera House was the backdrop for a maritime drama today when a former America’s Cup racing yacht slammed into underwater rocks near the landmark, tipped onto its side and threw some of its passengers overboard.

British sailor Ben Ainslie was today tipped to become one of the all-time great Olympians.

TWO white-knuckle rides in two days are probably a bit much, but what’s the point in coming to Cork Week if you’re not prepared to take a couple of chances both at sea and ashore?

ONE of the world’s top hi-tech racing yachts is on its way to Cork this weekend, but it won’t be sailing under its own power.

THE SWISS organisers of the next America’s Cup revealed yesterday a clear favourite had still not emerged among the four south European ports vying to host the event in 2007.

A letter threatening a terrorist attack using cyanide has been sent to a New Zealand newspaper, police said today.

YACHTING: Alinghi won the America’s Cup with a crushing 5-0 clean sweep of Team New Zealand yesterday completing an “impossible” quest to take sport’s oldest trophy to Europe for the first time.

Swiss challengers Alinghi have become the first European team to win the America’s Cup after whitewashing Team New Zealand 5-0 in the best of-nine series.

A group calling itself “September 11” sent terror threats to the British High Commission and American and Australian embassies in New Zealand warning it had 55lbs of cyanide to use against US interests if Iraq was attacked, police said today.

A LAST-MINUTE strategy switch at the start of yesterday’s third America’s Cup race gave Alinghi of Switzerland the edge they needed to beat defending champion Team New Zealand around the course for a third straight time.

SWISS challenger Alinghi surged from behind to narrowly beat defenders Team New Zealand yesterday in the race for yachting’s America’s Cup, taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-nine series.

Hardened activists, families and people making their first gestures of public protest joined in global demonstrations against war in Iraq.

FOR the second time in his sailing career, skipper Russell Coutts has won the Louis Vuitton Cup after his Alinghi Team defeated Oracle BMW Racing to establish an unassailable 5-1 lead in the waters off Auckland.

US YACHT Oracle scored a morale-boosting victory over Swiss rival Alinghi in the fourth race of the Louis Vuitton Cup finals here yesterday.

AMERICA’S Cup holders Team New Zealand stole the limelight from challengers Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing, when they revealed a radical new hull design at an unveiling ceremony yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO’S Oracle raced to victory over OneWorld of Seattle yesterday for the right to take on Switzerland’s Alinghi for a place in the America’s Cup next year.

ITALY bade arrivederci to an increasingly bitter America’s Cup in Auckland yesterday as holders Team New Zealand (TNZ) accused its challengers of cheating by copying a revolutionary boat design.

YACHTING’S America’s Cup was last night sailing into a new storm as holders Team New Zealand (TNZ) questioned the legal standing of a crucial tactic of the likely challenger.

SWITZERLAND’S Alinghi yesterday qualified for the finals of the challenge round of yachting’s America’s Cup by defeating American rival Oracle on the Hauraki Gulf.

HEAVY winds and high seas have forced the postponement of racing in the America’s Cup challengers semi-finals, with Swiss syndicate Alinghi just one win away from reaching the final.

DENNIS CONNER’S America’s Cup team said yesterday they would use a boat which sank to the ocean floor only four months ago for their sudden death challengers quarter-final against Britain’s GBR Challenge.

THE British crew in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challenger series for the America’s Cup, took a step up into what has been described as the ‘middle league’ the four teams likely to tussle over the valuable fourth semi finals spot when they dispatched Sweden’s Victory Challenge yesterday by a comfortable 48 seconds.

THOUGH Prada scored an important win in the only match to be completed in flight 6 of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series for the America’s Cup, GBR Challenge was saved from defeat by the very light winds.

BRITAIN were defeated in their historic first return to the America’s Cup stage in 15 years, as they lost to Team Dennis Conner’s vastly experienced crew on Stars and Stripes in the first showcase race of the 31st America’s Cup series.

NINE syndicates from six countries will fight for the right to challenge the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, the present holders of the America’s Cup, for the 31st edition of the sailing competition off Auckland.