Andrew Simpson Olympic Yachtsman 1976-2013

Simpson on the right with Iain Percy

Andrew Simpson was the crewman who along with Iain Percy won gold in the Star class at the Beijing Olympics and silver in the same class last summer.

He was a competitive sailor in the Finn class before teaming up with Percy, winning silver in the 2001 European Championships and bronze in the 2003 worlds. But of course that was a class where fellow Brit Ben Ainslie ruled supreme so the chance to crew for Percy allowed him to take part in two Olympics.

With the Star class cut from the 2016 Olympic regatta Simpson's eyes turned towards the America's Cup, like those of his teenage training partner and rival Ben Ainslie. Yesterday he was training with the Swedish crew Artemis Racing in San Francisco Bay for who he was the strategist. The catamaran flipped over and he was trapped underneath for 10 minutes and efforts from doctors out in the bay and onshore were unable to revive him.

Speaking after missing out on gold only in the medal race last summer when the wind shifted Simpson said,

"It's a lottery at times. That last run proved it. We didn't get it right. Sorry for everyone who's watching. We tried our hardest." 

Sadly that lottery of water, wind and men trying to control both claimed his life yesterday.

Thoughts are with his wife Leah, their young son Freddie, the rest of the Artemis crew and all his friends and family.

Andrew Simpson 17 December 1976 - 9 May 2013

Royal Mail Golden Stamps 18 #London2012

Paralympics GB finished yesterday with more silver medals than Beijing and the same number of bronzes. With 25 golds, only 2 more yesterday, so far they are 17 down on what they achieved then, but within striking distance of the Olympians. Today was to be no exception in continuing the Gold Rush though meaning more Royal Mail stamps.

First up down at Weymouth there wasn't enough wind to be able to compete in the medal races, however it didn't prevent GB's first ever medals in Paralympic sailing and one of those was gold. Helena Lucas may have been the only woman in the 2.4mR class fleet but after yesterday's race she was guaranteed at least silver with her lead over Germany's Heiko Kroger. A gold post box will appear in Portland.

Then there was hiStorey being made over at Brands Hatch. Yeah that women Sarah Storey won her fourth gold of these Games in the C4-5 women's road race. She was in a lone breakaway and finished 7 mins 22 secs ahead of the rest of the field: she actually caught the men's C1-3 peleton that was 2 minutes up the road. As a result she has equaled Tanni Grey-Thompson as the female GB Paralympian with the most gold medals they both now have 11. Also level with fellow 'swimmer' David Roberts with his 11 golds. Will there be more at Rio to add to Storey's 20 year career in the pool and on the bike.

For the record Storey has 11 gold 7 silver and 3 bronze to Grey-Thompson's and Robert's both with 11 G, 4 S, 1 B. Only Mike Kenny has more golds 16 plus 2 silvers. She also is the British athlete on the most gold medal stamps....so far.

Next in the Aquatic Centre 15 year-old Josef Craig took three seconds off his own world record in the Men's S7 400m freestyle which he took off fellow Brit Jonathan Fox in qualifying this morning, who this time finished outside the medals. He took the lead at 150m and never looked like getting caught from there. He won in 4:42.81 and was the baby on the men's swimming team.

Then it was over to the Olympic Stadium where the 29th Gold matching the Olympians and 104th medal surpassing Beijing came in one 32 seconds of explosion. Hannah Cockcroft beat her own Paralympic Record set in the heats to win the sprint double in 31.90secs and 2.26 seconds ahead of the rest in the women's T34 200m. Her second gold medal winning push will see a second golden post box.

But things were not over in the stadium just yet. Within an hour Dave Weir was up for the third and final of his track finals in these Games; the T54 men's 800m. He sat in second from the break until coming off the last bend into the home straight as he pulled away to make it three in London 2012.

In the very next race the men's T44 100m Jonnie Peacock beat Oscar Pistorius, Alan Olivera and others to be the fastest man on one leg. The crowd were roaring 'Peacock, Peacock' before the start which caused Jonnie himself to ask them for silence. He ran away to the line in 10.90seconds. 

Three days to go but already surpassed the number of medals from Beijing and the target set by Paralympics GB. Also more Gold medal stamps for the Paralympians than the Olympians.

Big Ben rules the waves #London2012

The first medal races in the Olympic regatta brought mixed fortunes for team GB boats. First up were Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson who had led the Star class all week.  They just had to beat the crew of Brazil skippered by Robert Scheidt of Brazil (once Ben Ainslie's nemesis from Atlanta and Sydney), without letting the Swedish pair of Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen get too far ahead. In effect even if the Swedes won they could have finished 6th.

The rounded the last mark in gold medal position and forced the Brazilians behind two other boats. The for the final down wind reach they were looking good seemingly in fourth place with a few hundred metres to go and still ahead of the Brazilians. But there was a change in wind advantage in those final metres and the entire fleet around them seemed to surge further more and they ended up in 8th one spot down on the Brazilians, but as the Swedes had indeed won the race they would take gold.

The second medal match of the day saw Ben Ainslie in the Finn going for his fourth gold in sailing which would have been a new Olympic record. But unlike Percy and Simpson and indeed himself in past Olympics he had never led the regatta. He had managed to pull it down to a one place race between himself and the Dane Jonas Hogh-Christensen but he was also awat that if the Dutch sailor Pieter-Jan Postma were to win or come second he could take on Christensen at the back of race one on one.

After chasing Christensen round the committee boat at the start but failing to affect his race Ben got off to racing. After the fourth leg he ended up in second and started to mark the Dane as the Dutch sailor didn't seem to have the position to overhaul him. When they rounded the last mark Postma was in fourth and Ben was marking the Dane at the back of the 10 boat fleet, however the Finnish sailor almost getting in the way. But on the downwind the Dutch sailor was making up places and what must have been a nervy leg for Ainslie, but he had to tack late to be able to get around the bouy and as a result dropped down the fleet.

It meant that Ben had done enough and when he crossed the line he knew he was Olympic Champion once more. With four golds and a silver he has just beaten another Dane, Paul Elvstrøm's record. He also said in his interview afterwards while still on the water that it was unlikely that we would see him again in Rio in four years time, because the atmosphere here in a home Games would be hard to beat and it had been a tough week. But what a way to bow out of Olympic competition. Maybe now he will find a way to focus on America's Cup or other competition.

Breaking News: Five Sail Free from Iran

The breaking news of this morning is that the five British yachtsmen who had been held in Iran for encroaching their territorial waters while heading from Bahrain to Dubai for a race have been released.

Luke Porter, 21, from Weston-super-Mare; Oliver Smith, 31, from Southampton; Oliver Young, 21, from Cornwall; Sam Usher, 26, from Scarborough, and Bahrain-based David Bloomer were on their way to take part in the Dubai-Muscat race on the 25 November when they strayed into Iranian waters by mistake. Hours after foreign secretary David Milliband spoke to his Iranian counterpart this was the accpeted tale of events according to the Iranian naval guard.

However, they have spent almost a week in Iranian custody to be able to prove their innocence.

Update 06:02: The Foreign Office are still waiting to confirm this story which has broken through Iranian news channels.

News: Scottish Man Smashes Bottle in Leith

Yeah I know hardly a newsworthy title until you find out that it wasn't a bottle of Buckfast, which luminary did the smashing, what the bottle was being smashed against.

On Friday I was mischievously saying that Alex Salmond was acting like Shakespearean Scottish Royalty. Now as I've been off in the wilds of Kinross I find that he's been smashing bottles of champagne against the brow of ships.

Yeah I know there is far more to Royal duties than propelling the odd bottle of Moet across a slipway to a new vessel but on this occasion I think Alex would have been a good pick for the role. The vessel in question is a 68ft yacht that is about to set off on the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and it was being named Edinburgh Inspiring City.

The race will consist of 10 teams on yachts named for international cities will be crewed by young people as they sail the 35,000 miles around the world. The other already named yachts are the returning Hull & Humber, Uniquely Singapore and Qingdao with three other new entries already named Cape Breton Island, Cork and California. The remaining three yachts have Welsh, Finnish and Australian skippers. But while the yachts are name after one location their crews are from multiple countries and not as the article I linked to would suggest are all the crew young. Edinburgh Inspiring City has a crew ranging in age from 18 year-old student Frederick O'Hare to 62 year-old management consultant Michael Boyle, representing 5 nations with 27 men and 16 women whose average age is 38.

As someone who has pulled on a number of ropes, set a number of sails, spotted my wind to pick out my course I'm a little envious of those who will be setting out from the Humber in 35 days time in the 13 September, to sail the whole way around the world, or those who will joining on one the legs. But good luck and safe travelling to all of them.

The race consists of seven legs:

• Leg 1: Humber, UK, via La Rochelle, France to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Leg 2: Rio to Cape Town, South Africa
• Leg 3: Cape Town to Fremantle, Austrailia
• Leg 4: Perth to Qingdoa, China, via Singapore
• Leg 5: Qingdao to San Francisco, USA,
• Leg 6: USA to Carribean, via Panama Canal
• Leg 7: Carribean - New York, USA - Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada - Cork, Ireland - The Humber.

Three Men Won A Gold

Yeah the Brits finally have put three men on the top of a medal podium in the Beijing Olympics on the first day of the track cycling as Team GB exploded unto the velodrome.

Jamie Staff got the qualifying round off to a flyer with the fastest opening 250 metres ever in the team sprint, allowing Jason Kenny to lead out Chris Hoy for the final 250 setting a World Record 42.950 secs to set the standard. They eased through the first round to face France in the final which they secured with a run of 43.128 over half a second up on the French.

Elsewhere in the velodrome Bradley Wiggins was quickest with an Olympic record in qualifying for the men's 4000m pursuit with debutant Steve Burke a credible 5th. In the women's 3000m version Britain were 1st and 2nd with Wendy Houvenaghel and Rebecca Romero dominating proceedings.

Elsewhere on the various bits of water the sailors are guaranteed at least a silver and bronze medal going into tomorrow's match races as Ben Ainslie in the Finn and the Yngling girls finished far enough ahead of their challengers to make it a two horse race for Ben and at least a bronze for the Yngling crew with the Brits leading both standings. Paul Goodison also now heads the Laser class and Nick Dempsey has moved up to third in teh RS:X Windsurfing class.

Meanwhile in the rowing more British crews secured final places as both the lightweight men's double scull, Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter, and lightweight men's four, Richard Chambers, James Lindsay-Fynn, Paul Mattick and James Clarke. It makes 10 finals at the rowing lake that Britain will have representation.

Britainia really is doing rather well on and in water at this Olympics.