Sailing: Britons hit top formSailing

Two wins in two starts gave the best possible boost to Britain's America's Cup crew taking part in a warm-up regatta in Auckland yesterday. "It was an absolutely cracking result for the guys," said Angus Melrose, one of the managers of the syndicate representing the Royal Dorset Yacht Club.

After a delay for the wind to settle in at about 14 knots, the British crew, sailing one of the matched pair of America's Cup yachts being provided by the defending Team New Zealand, capitalised on a premature start by Ed Baird for the New York Yacht Club and pulled away to win by 54 seconds.

But they trailed another American, Rod Davis, at the helm of San Francisco's America True, for most of the first beat only for their skipper, Chris Law, and local tactician Murray Jones, to engineer an inside overlap at the first turning mark and lead for the rest of the race, winning by 24 seconds.

Baird then went on to beat France's Societe Nautique Port Camargue, to add to two victories on the opening day against America True.

Each of the teams is scheduled to race each other twice, the top points scorer then going into a final against New Zealand tomorrow and Sunday.

Ludde Ingvall, of Finland, in the 80ft Nicorette is praying for a return of the blustery winds that powered him from New York as he approaches Ireland in his bid to break the record for the crossing to the Lizard. He expects to finish tomorrow evening in 11 days, beating the record of 12 days 4 hours set in 1905.