I name this ship...

It's funny what gets people talking in the sailing world. Sometimes it's not the things you might expect. I went for a scout around the forums of yachtsandyachting.com, and while some of the more ‘worthy' subjects seem to receive very little attention, the one that is getting all the attention is the important subject of boat names. People have been pitching in with all sorts of anecdotes and ideas about how to name a boat, and whether it should be named at all.

Y&Y's illustrious editor, Gael, even left a message earlier this year asking for boat name ideas for her nameless RS200. There was no shortage of advice offered, notably from Dr Clifford, who posted these anagram variations on "RS two hundred": "thundeR Sword", "Shrewd & Rotund", "hundred woRSt"; and best of all, "drown heR Stud".

There are some great suggestions in the forum and a few words of warning. James Bell recounts this cautionary tale about his battered old Mirror which was nicknamed "Titanic". "It was a rather strange specimen featuring wooden decks and internals but an outer turquoise fibre glass skin that was dimpled like cellulite. It was also on the heavy side. When I was about 8 or 9 I took it out for a spin one day. Hadn't got very far when I decided to put down the self-bailer to drain away a bit of water. It was pretty stiff, so I gave it a good push and the thing came off in my hands! It didn't take long for the water to start flooding in through the hole that had appeared in the bottom (it wasn't very windy). Just goes to show that if you give a boat a bad name she'll live up to it!"

A few old classics crop up, such as the 505 known as "Sailbad the Sinner", and some others which I'd love to know the history to, such as Betty Swollocks. But one that deserves special mention is one dreamed up by the owners of the Cork 1720 'Mad Cow' who have called their RIB "Udderboat".

I don't know the name of the Cherub which was caught up in ‘Hurricane Ivan', but it was obviously a name that brought its owner, designer and builder Ken Appleby some luck. The UK Association sent this story in. "After the terrible passage of 'Hurricane Ivan' over the Cayman Islands, the UK Cherub Class Association has been trying to get in touch with one of its far flung members. And it is with great relief that we heard from Ken yesterday. This is how he describes his extreme wind experience. Really windy. Very scary gusts of 210 mph. My roof stayed on and luckily I am on the first floor, so no flood damage. We had an 8-foot storm surge, (bearing in mind that most of the island is only three feet above sea level) everything got very flooded. The Cherub survived but did float down the road in the three-foot waves. The island is pretty destroyed and we still have no power or water."

Wind on the web

And we thought it was windy in the UK. After the frustratingly light sailing season of 2003, the wind really has returned with a vengeance this year. Every time I look on ChiMet, it seems to be blowing old boots down at Hayling Island. For the uninitiated, ChiMet is a website, www.chimet.co.uk, which streams live data from a weather beacon situated at the seaward end of Hayling's infamous Bar at the entrance to Chichester Harbour.

The website is put together by former 505 World Champion and current RS700 sailor, Ian Mitchell. ChiMet has a sister site which records data from inside Chichester Harbour called CamberMet, along with two recent additions launched just in time for Skandia Cowes Week earlier in the summer. SotonMet tells you what's going on in the docklands of Southampton, not much use to us yotties, but BrambleMet in the middle of the Solent is very useful.

Real-time data websites like these are incredibly valuable for telling you whether or not it's worth throwing your kit in the car and making the drive down to the sailing club. I believe you can even get the data sent to your mobile phone but this level of technology remains beyond me for the moment. These websites are also very useful for settling sailing club bar disputes, when people say the reason why they capsized five times was because it was blowing 30 knots when the website said it was just 18.

Radio Ga Ga

Talking about exaggeration and hyperbole, that's exactly what I've been doing down in Valencia during ACT 2 of the America's Cup, one of a series of feeder regattas before the Cup finals in 2007. I thought I was going there to interview sailors and write stories for the official website at www.americascup.com, and so I was. But little did I know that I was also expected to commentate on the racing for the radio. Bearing in mind that I write a column about dinghy racing for Yachts & Yachting, it was a little daunting to have to cast judgement on some of the best-paid professional big boat sailors in the world.

Luckily there are other people around who do know what they're talking about, such as Paul Campbell-James, who came in for a day as a guest commentator alongside me. Paul, the British Match Racing Champion, helped me fathom the mysteries of match racing and particularly the dance of the pre-start. Paul, who is still only 21, is making a name for himself on the international match race circuit and was down in Valencia to learn more about a world that he would love to get involved in. If GBR Challenge ever gets up and running, Paul stands a good chance of being considered for the team's squad of helmsmen. I'm pleased to hear he hasn't entirely ruled dinghy racing, however, as he's also contemplating an Olympic campaign in a 49er.

Iain in at the deep end

Anyway, if I was concerned about my lack of Cup knowledge, what was Iain Percy feeling like as the new skipper of Italian challenge +39? In the practice race of ACT2 Percy showed that even Olympic Champions can get it badly wrong when he wrapped the keel of +39 around the anchor line of the committee boat. But Percy was good humoured about his mishap. After all this is the first time he's helmed anything the size and weight of an AC boat, let alone the fact that he's new to wheel steering.

Luca Devoti, the boatbuilder behind the Finn and Musto Skiff amongst others, is the man who has pulled the +39 team together. As a Finn fanatic and Silver medallist in his own right, Devoti has turned to his friends in the Finn class to pack out the Cup boat. Of course, they're the right shape for turning over the grinding handles and putting the required amount of muscle, but how will a bunch of singlehanded dinghy sailors get on together?

Percy and Devoti are both keen to emphasise that they have only chosen sailors whom they believe will put aside personal ambition for the greater good. Among them are Rafael Trujillo, the Silver medallist from Athens, Xavier Rohart the former Finn sailor who won Bronze in the Star, and Britain's Andrew Simpson to name a few. Ben Ainslie's bete noire from the Olympics, France's Finn representative Guillaume Florent, was due to have been +39's navigator, as he is an acknowledged genius with electronics and computer programming. But within two days of Percy arriving in the team, Florent was packing his bags and on his way. Bearing in mind Percy and Ainslie are best mates, it begged the question as to whether Percy had given Florent the heave-ho. "I'd love to tell you that was the case," Percy told me, "and I'd certainly score some brownie points with Ben if I said that, but Florent actually left over contractual issues."

Luca Devoti gave me the same line on Florent, saying that the Frenchman couldn't choose between the security of his job at a software house and the relative instability of a three-year stint at +39. Either way, Ben will be glad he doesn't have to share the same city with Florent. There is no love lost between these two after their port/starboard argument in Athens. Ben started his sailing with Emirates Team New Zealand in Valencia, along with fellow Finn representatives Dean Barker on the helm and Kevin Hall on navigation.

The best of all time?

Ben is doing the role of strategist, operating as an extra set of eyes for the afterguard and looking for any opportunities further up the race track. Ben and Dean clearly became good friends during their time racing the Finn together, and now they are operating alongside each other. Head of the Kiwi team Grant Dalton is in awe of Ben's talent and says he could go on to be the best sailor ever, perhaps better than Paul Elvstrom. Lots of people have said similar things about Ben, but when someone has forthright as Dalts says stuff like this, you sit up and take notice.

Dalts says Dean is the "skipper designate", that he is the man with the top job, and that it is Dean's to lose and Ben's to get. There's no doubt that that's where Ben has his eyes set, although he would be the first to admit that he has a lot to learn before he can expect to take on the likes of the top match race helmsmen like Luna Rossa's James Spithill and Alinghi's Peter Holmberg (another Finn silver medallist from 1988, by the way). Back home in the Kiwi press Dean Barker is getting it in the neck and being told to step aside to give Ben a chance at the wheel. Fascinating times for Ben Ainslie as he moves into the next phase of his history-making career.

It is a different sort of pressure that sits on Iain Percy's shoulders as he walks into the skipper's job with no prior experience in Cup racing. No one is expecting +39 to be vying with the big boys in three years' time in the finals of the competition, except perhaps for the Finn and Star boys on the boat itself. Luca Devoti has defied the conventional wisdom of filling his team with Cup veterans in favour of taking the cream of the current Olympic generation and leaving them to get on and work it out for themselves. As I write, with just two days of competition completed, Percy and his mates seem to be making a good job of it. After the shambles of their committee boat tangle, Percy has been throwing the boat around the pre-starts with great confidence and despite his complete lack of match racing experience seems to be picking this game up very quickly. Perhaps a bunch of dinghy sailors can do this Cup racing after all. One thing is for sure, if you want to move into Cup racing from the dinghy scene, the Finn seems to be the springboard from which to do it.