CITY BACK FROM WEEK OF FROLICS AT COWES
THE weather-beaten City sailing crowd are back in the City this week after the annual Cowes week regatta, probably feeling a touch worse for wear after the closing celebrations at the weekend.
Carphone Warehouse tycoon Charles Dunstone was celebrating winning the overall trophy for his class, after his boat Rio finished ahead of the pack in a spectacular six out of eight races, while Lloyd’s of London chief executive Richard Ward, finance director Luke Savage and general counsel Sean McGovern had their best ever year with their yacht Lutine, as they entertained over 30 Lloyd’s market bosses over the course of the week.
Yet one City bigwig whose absence was noted was Jamie Matheson, head honcho at stockbroker Brewin Dolphin, who last year wowed the crowds with his newly-revamped boat Opposition. The yacht – formerly known as Morning Cloud – used to belong to late ex-Tory Prime Minister Ted Heath, and was back on the water after a £250,000 refit in the same Cowes shed where she was originally built.
Still, my man on deck says the beauty is still in the capable hands of the Brewin boss and is simply off sailing elsewhere this week, so the Isle of Wight can hope to see a lot more of her in years to come.
TREASURE HUNT
Is the Bernie Madoff saga about to take an even more bizarre twist?
The £50bn fraudster’s old oceanfront estate in Montauk, New York is yet to be sold off, and some are saying that the reported $3.5m (£2.1m) price tag will turn out to be far too low. It certainly will be if the latest rumour doing the rounds turns out to be true, though – apparently, local residents are just waiting for men with metal detectors to turn up to scan the property for hidden metal boxes of cash, stashed or buried on the estate.
That’s unless some other lucky punter gets there first, of course…
MORAL CONSCIENCE
All the action on Facebook and Twitter surrounding the fate of the Observer makes The Capitalist wonder if it might not be a clever ruse by owner GMG to boost the paper’s sales?
There was no shortage yesterday of aficionados tweeting about local shops having sold out, after the campaign groups on the sites urged all and sundry to race out and snap up copies of the paper en masse. But although the strategy is proving effective, it seems some are buying less out of love and more out of a sense of deep-seated moral obligation.
As one buyer tweeted, somewhat morosely: “Buying the Observer today feels a bit like buying the Big Issue…”
EYE FULL
This might just win the prize for the most bizarre dress code enforcement case in history, but word is that skimpy Speedos have been banned from the water park at Alton Towers for failing to meet the theme park resort’s “family-friendly” standards. After a sunny weekend, the resort noticed the number of men visiting its water park in tight trunks had soared – and, in a move it rather vulgarly dubbed “the battle of the bulge”, outlawed Speedos altogether.
“While women may hail the return of the skimpy bathers, the style itself is not deemed public or family friendly, and therefore the resort is requesting that male swimmers wear more appropriate styles such as boardshorts,” a statement reads. “The resort is also considering introducing mandatory bikini waxing for men, to prevent unsightly hair from being on display should the heatwave continue.”
Draconian in the extreme, though quite how waxing should be considered obligatory with board shorts is anyone’s guess.