Dunstone run brought to an end in Cowes

A run of five straight wins in class one, including lifting both the Britannia Cup and the New York Yacht Club Challenge Trophy, was brought to a halt today as Steve Travis in Dark and Steamy pushed Charles Dunstone's Rio into second place in Cowes Week to take the Coronation Challenge Bowl.

Conditions were not ideal, with the postponement flag again fluttering in the late morning light winds, but, eventually, all 37 classes started and finished their Solent races. Travis' smaller, yacht was able to take advantage of those light conditions early in the race and then hang on as the wind later improved.

The Roger Sturgeon-entered American STP65 Rosebud, with Volvo round the world race-winning navigator Jules Salter on board, wound up three days of big boat racing with a win over Niklas Zennstrom's 72-foot Ran and Patrizio Bertelli's Luna Rossa. The 80-foot, Hong Kong-based Beau Geste, owned by Karl Kwok, was last of the quartet.

Just one point covers the top three places overall in the closely-fought Quarter Ton class, Louis Morton's Espada edging Brett Linton and Jamie McDowell's Diamond into second and Howard Sellars and Mike Till to third in Bullet.

Optimism was positively bursting from Eddie Warden Owen, ceo of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, as he looked forward to the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race on Sunday.

"I think it will be a stunning race, it could be one of the nicer one, I wish I was going," he said. Warden Owen expects earlier forecasts of light winds to be overtaken, at least by Monday, by a new system bringing 13 to 14 knots of puff, which, although not ideal for record-breaking, should give the 300-boat fleet, plus 11 Open 60s, a comfortable ride over the 608-mile course.

America's Cup defender Alinghi is hoping to airlift its catamaran from the base in Le Bouveret, on Switzerland's Lake Geneva, through the Alps to Genoa tomorrow.