If these plans, which are all relatively advanced, come to fruition, there should be at least two boats flying British colours in this year's Tour Voile. As I, write Simon Sarsfield's 'Panther AMG' team - which many will remember made some early noises last year and entered but did not race - start crew training with two boats in early March. Plus Simon Shaw - who skippered last year's British student team - and Peter Bonham-Christie are assembling a campaign which will be run under the Royal Thames flag and will be largely backed by Royal Thames members.

The Sarsfield team is being put together by Rob Greenhalgh and will have some project management input from his main employer Race1. At the core of their crew are the team who took fourth at last year's Mumm 30 worlds and their line up so far includes name like Mike Budd, who will be doing much of the steering over the season, Jim Hunt, lan Pinnell, Jeremy Elliot, Duncan McDonald are on the crew list, and navigator Mike Broughton is believed to be keen.

Sarsfield is looking for an outside sponsor to help with the funding, but has confirmed that the backing is in place for a full season which will include Spi Ouest, the Europeans in Medemblik, the Tour Voile and the worlds in Annapolis.

They start with a two-boat programme and will train all the way through March and April. They are testing a full set of new Quantum sails, like those which took first and second at last year's worlds, but are not jumping to any conclusions.

Meanwhile Greenhalgh is fully involved with Race1's operations and will run a new Ker 11.3 this season for Keith McCullough. McCullough was involved with the British Admiral's Cup boat 'Venture 99', and who had the Sydney 40 'Blue Genes'. En passant, Race1 is doing some interesting development work with a 27ft Steve Thompson designed Sportsboat, upon which they are putting a new keel, 200kg heavier, and a new rig and will have it built at Richard Woof's RMW Marine. It's due to cost about £28,500 ex VAT and sails and will be 'quite a bit quicker' than a Mumm 30.
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The other campaign will be using Peter Bonham-Christie's boat. Peter, Simon Shaw and Owen Modral will put together the crew. They have not yet decided whether they will be entering to defend the student division title, but they are well on their way to achieving their proposed £35-40k budget.

They have made some initial sponsorship approaches, but so far the responses have been negative. And, because they are mainly students, they have little time or opportunity to go at it full on. Instead they have come up with the idea that Royal Thames members can effectively sponsor a stopover town and there are 12 main ones over the month - and so far the response has been very encouraging. As a Royal Thames backed entry, the core of the crew will be drawn from members so there will be limited opportunities to sign up and do the tour - presumably unless you join.

Shaw is adamant that they are out to do better than last year and learnt many lessons last time: 'I think that we swapped crew a little too often,' he said. 'We went with the preconceived notion that it was going to be hell on earth for a month, and really it wasn't. So, I think this time we'll try and use a core crew for longer. We'll also make more use of hotels this time for the guys who are sailing next day as they really need to get the best undisturbed rest.

'They are actively seeking a top class navigator, who may be a Thames member, and are looking to get more support ashore with a full time shore manager to take on the logistical problems. Use of the classic crew bus which was the envy of all last time, and which belongs to Peter's family friend Simon Powell - is under negotiation.