Emirates Team New Zealand is settling in for a week of intensive preparations in the five days before the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup finals.

The 10 teams entered in the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup received their AC45s today, marking the official beginning of the series created to give youth sailors a pathway to be an America’s Cup sailor.

The ISAF World Sailing Rankings for 12 August 2013 have been released. • Belcher still dominant in Men’s 470 after 17th straight victory and fourth world title in a row • Paine (USA) shifts Casey (AUS) off Finn top spot • Croatians become 49er World #1 for first time • Six British sailors in top three

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are one step closer to claiming their first world title in the Olympic 470 class with just one day and one race remaining at the 2013 470 World Championships now coming to its conclusion in La Rochelle, France. Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox have scraped into the Men’s top eight and will be back on the race course tomorrow too.

The Chicago Match Race Centre played host to the 5th stop on the Alpari World Match Racing tour. The regatta was run off the famous navy pier in conjunction with the Tall Ships festival. An estimated million people passed through the pier to take a look over the five day regatta.

The tables have turned after day four at the 2013 470 World Championships on now in La Rochelle, France with NZL Sailing Team’s Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie regaining the lead in the Women’s fleet, while Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox didn’t fair so well and have dropped to 11th in the Men’s Championship. All fleets sailed three races in 10-15 knot winds in La Rochelle today.

I have spent the past two weeks in Rio training here for the first time in the Laser. It is a venue that I will become as familiar with as possible over the next few years in the build-up to the 2016 Olympics.

Today’s conditions were a lot lighter than yesterday but impressively the race committee managed to put away 10 flights leaving 4 races to be completed in the round robin tomorrow. The day was packed with some fantastic racing and we even saw a match where one team was forced to tack going down wind with a spinnaker up which made for interesting discussions in the debrief.

Nacra17 multihull campaigners Jason Saunders and Gemma Jones report in on the recent Nacra17 World Championships, where they placed 9th and what’s on next… We are back in New Zealand again and recovering from a hard Europe trip and a bit of jet-lag! It’s been a successful trip and we are both very happy with how things panned out.

Finals rounds got underway today at the 2013 470 World Championships with the La Rochelle venue testing sailors with more challenging conditions on day three of the six day long regatta. Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox (pictured) are now in 2nd place in the Men’s fleet; Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are lying 6th in Women’s. Racing was in 8-14 knots of unstable breeze with strong tidal currents and a choppy sea.