Pushing Ahead...

Assa Abloy extend their lead over all but Dalts

Positions at 1600GMT



The seven remaining competitors on leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race are now all en route to the New Zealand's City of Sails, Auckland.

Lisa McDonald's Amer Sports Too was last to leave the Tasmanian capital, Hobart, yesterday after spending 24 hours repairing a damaged rudder. The team are now some 400 miles behind Neal McDonald's current leader Assa Abloy, however as we have seen already, anything can happen in this yacht race.

The Assa Abloy team continue to extend their lead over the rest of the fleet, including nearest rival Grant Dalton on Amer Sports One. The Swedish entry holds a respectable lead of 23 miles over Dalts, but 85 miles over third placed Tyco and fourth placed News Corp. Ross Field, navigator on board News Corp, doesn't have a clue what is currently going on with the weather.

"Peter Isler and myself have been in the nav station scratching our heads for most of the day," explains race veteran and past winner Field. "We have done well on illbruck and the others who are south of us but not well on the boats in the north. Very confusing."

Lurking three miles behind and slightly to the south of the Jez Fanstone's News Corp is John Kostecki's current race leader and pre-race favourite illbruck. For the first time since the race started three months ago the team look to be having trouble closing the gap on the boats in front. Yesterday crew member Ross Halcrow even admitted the team had suffered from a severe wipe out, a blown spinnaker, and that all of their mainsail battens had snapped. These could be the first signs that the team are beatable.

With only 1000 miles remaining, two to three days of racing, the odds are looking better and better that a boat other than Kostecki's illbruck will cross the Auckland finish line in first place. However, before anyone can get too excited, the weather forecast for the next 24 hours shows light a shifty winds for the fleet. "We are expecting 24 hours of light airs followed by some northerlies that will hopefully carry us to New Zealand," explains Assa Abloy's Richard Mason. "Plenty of tricky sailing coming up that should see the fleet start to converge to wards the northern tip of New Zealand. Lets hope that we can retain our position."



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