Disappointment as Sail 8 anti-poverty protest sinks

WHILE Live 8 organisers basked in the huge success of Saturday’s worldwide concerts, Sail 8 was fizzling out in a damp squib.

A tiny band of boats sailed into Portsmouth yesterday after completing a symbolic voyage across the English Channel in support of the Live 8 protest.

The final number of yachts fell far short of the 73 expected to take part in the Sail 8 flotilla announced by Bob Geldof and Dame Ellen MacArthur last month. And the aim of bringing French campaigners back to join the G8 protest in Edinburgh also proved over-ambitious after nobody turned up to accept the free lift.