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Storm set to test solo sailors

Leg 2
The boats have taken varying routes to avoid the forecast storm

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TORQUAY, England -- The single-handed Around Alone sailors are facing a severe test as a storm looms on the horizon late on Tuesday.

The sailors left Torbay on the second leg of the circumnavigation from Torbay 24 hours behind schedule at midday on Monday after organisers decided to hold back until a storm had passed through.

A deep depression is now forecast to cross their path in the Bay of Biscay late on Tuesday evening.

Winds up to 50 knots are expected to give the skippers on the 6,880-mile leg to Cape Town an early taste of what to expect once they reach the Southern Ocean.

Several of the solo sailors, including leg one winner Swiss Bernard Stamm in Bobst Group-Amor Lux, Frenchman Thierry Dubois in Solidaires in Class One and Canadian Derek Hatfield in Class Two, have sacrificed some speed and opted for a slower more northerly course to gain more miles to the west before the storm hits the fleet.

They will then be the first to benefit from the more favourable westerly winds after the depression has passed, speeding them towards Cape Town.

Opting for the more direct southerly course is New Zealander Graham Dalton in Hexagon and the only woman in the race, British skipper Emma Richards in Pindar.

Despite the extra time in Torbay, it was still a rush for some of the solo sailors to get to the line, with Japanese entry Kojiro Shiraishi in the 40ft Spirit of Yukoh making last minute repairs to his tacking keel which had worked loose on the first leg from New York.

American Bruce Schwab on the Open 60 Ocean Planet was still rigging a new carbon boom as his rivals crossed the start line. He eventually followed them 4-1/2 hours later.

First across the start line was the Canadian mountie Derek Hatfield in the Open 40 Spirit of Canada, but very soon the bigger more powerful Open 60's of Stamm and Dubois in Solidaires were rolling past.

There are 12 competitors left for the second leg after Belgian skipper Patrick Radigues' sponsors, Garnier, decided to pull him out of the race to join the shorter Route de Rhum race to the Caribbean in November.

The second leg is one of the most challenging tactical legs of the race as it takes the solo sailors all the way from the North Atlantic to the Southern Ocean via the Equator, passing different weather systems and ocean currents along the way.

The winner of the second leg is expected in Cape Town around November 8.

The 28,775-mile five-leg single-handed race is held every four years. There are two classes of monohulls from 12 to 18m (40 to 60ft).

The race has stopovers in Torbay, Cape Town, Tauranga, New Zealand and Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, before returning to Newport, U.S. in April 2003.

Leg Two: Torbay, England to Cape Town, South Africa

Standings on Tuesday morning

Class 1 Open 60

  • 1 Hexagon Graham Dalton (New Zealand)
  • 2 Tiscali Simone Bianchetti (Italy)
  • 3 Pindar Emma Richards (UK)
  • 4 Bobst Group-Armor Lux Bernard Stamm (Switzerland)
  • 5 Solidaires Thierry Dubois (France)
  • 6 Ocean Planet Bruce Schwab (USA)
  • Class II

  • 1 Tommy Hilfiger/Freedom America 50ft Brad Van Liew (US)
  • 2 Spirit of Canada Derek Hatfield 40ft (Canada)
  • 3 BTC Velocity 40ft Alan Paris (Bermuda)
  • 4 Spirit of Yukoh 40ft Kojiro Shiraishi (Japan)
  • 5 Bayer Ascensia 50ft John Dennis (Canada)
  • 6 Everest Horizontal 50ft Tim Kent (US)


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