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Sailors set across Southern Ocean

Bernard Stamm sails from Tauranga on leg four of the Around Alone race.

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Interactive: Profiles: Around Alone solo sailors

TAURANGA, New Zealand -- Eleven solo sailors have begun the fourth leg of the Around Alone circumnavigation, heading from New Zealand to Brazil.

The leg is considered the most dangerous of the five-leg, 28,775-mile race, as it crosses the Southern Ocean before rounding Cape Horn and ending in Salvador de Bahia.

Hundreds of spectator boats watched as the sailors set off from Tauranga, north New Zealand, on Sunday after Prime Minister Helen Clark fired the start gun.

"This was really incredible," said Clark.

"I could really feel the emotion in the air and I will be thinking about the sailors tonight when I get back home and they are still out there and will be for a many days."

To prevent the competitors sailing south into the ice zone, the race organisers have established two way-points that the yachts must sail above.

Race chairman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston discussed the possibility of ice at the pre-race briefing and noted a massive iceberg, 11 miles long by 4 wide, situated 400 miles north of the Falkland Islands.

"We do not have any reports of ice between New Zealand and Cape Horn," he said. "But that doesn't mean that it's not there and you will all have to be very careful."

The skippers have pledged to keep each other informed of any icebergs.

Swiss sailor Bernard Stamm has won every leg in his Open 60 Bobst Group/Amor Lux in class one and American Brad van Liew in Tommy Hilfiger has also performed the same hat-trick in his Open 50 in class two.

The two second positions are also well established, with French skipper Thierry Dubois a consistent second in class one and Canadian Tim Kent in Everest Horizontal in class two.

New Zealander Graham Dalton, who came third on the last leg sailing Hexagon, has improved on each leg as he gains confidence and Italian Simone Bianchetti should finally be settling in after his dismasting on the second leg.

Four years ago in the Around Alone Briton skipper Mike Golding was overall race leader until he hit a sand bank at the top of New Zealand. The structural damage was so severe that he was forced to retire.

The lead was then taken up by Frenchwoman Isabelle Autissier until her boat capsized before Cape Horn and she was rescued by fellow competitor Giovanni Soldini.

Frenchman Marc Thiercelin then moved to the front only to be dismasted soon after rounding Cape Horn allowing Soldini to win both the leg and the overall race.