Tyco hangs on

With the slenderest of leads, Tyco heads the closest Ocean Race yet.

Kevin Shoebridge's crew has been at the top of the standings, through thick and thin, for four of the ten days that the fleet have been at sea. Despite their apparent success, they have yet to really shake off Assa Abloy, who have almost become a sparring partner and three other boats are hovering behind waiting to trample any of the leaders underfoot should they falter.

With the speeds so close, Roy Heiner and his crew have resorted to every trick in the book to get past but still they remain behind. "We have been chasing Tyco for two days now, slowly eking out boat length by boat length, explained Assa Abloy co-skipper and navigator Mark Rudiger this morning. "At the moment we are making our big move to pass before sunrise. They are just to leeward off the port bow 15 boat lengths. Roy (Heiner, skipper and Olympic medallist helmsman) has been driving like a possessed panther for hours and won't give up the helm until we are ahead. The advantage of passing them close at night, is that during the day, by the rules, they are allowed to take evasive manoeuvres to stop us from passing, but at night, they have to adhere to the 'regulations for safety and prevention of collisions at sea', and must not alter course when an overtaking vessel passes. So we are pushing hard to get by them before official sunrise."

For the last twenty-four hours, a northerly 8-10 knot breeze has gently pushed the leading five yachts - Tyco, Assa Abloy, News Corp, Amer Sports One and illbruck - towards the equator at a touch above the speed of the wind forward movement.

Giving an insight into the tensions on board, Team News Corp navigator Ross Field, who has twice won the Whitbread race, reflected: "Light airs ocean racing: this would have to be the most stressful part of ocean racing. Give me 35 knots in the southern ocean, dodging icebergs, blasting downhill, any time. The stress of getting those tenths of a knot of boat speed from the boat, making sure the crew whisper when talking, walk around the boat quietly, man up the rig search for that little vane of air, getting the right sail on, monitoring the radar every minute to plot the progress of the other boats, making sure that we don't make too much fresh water at one time so the boat doesn't get heavy, making sure that the exact wind angles are being sailed. The list goes on and on and all the crew are dying for the moment when you hear the water start moving against the hull and the breeze increases."

Adding fuel to the tactical fire, illbruck made a bold move late yesterday evening to split east from Amer Sports One and Team News Corp, looking to sail away from the clouds that have dogged the fleet for two days now. illbruck helmsman and trimmer Ray Davies explained: "We took a big loss to head east into better pressure and away from the suck of the breeze-sapping clouds. Hopefully we can line ourselves up for the night of clear sky or at least one the right side of the clouds, which is what it's all about at the moment."

But, in the far east, Marcel Van Triest's tactics, inadvertently brought on by a pit stop off Madeira, saw the lime green SEB sail into the most favourable conditions of the fleet, running up the best 24-hour mile run of the day. While SEB has to give away southerly miles to head west at some point to make the waypoint off Brazil, skipper Gunnar Krantz and his crew will just be relieved to reel in some miles on the fleet after their headboard car debacle.

With progress continuing to be slower than predicted and the major hurdle of the doldrums still left to negotiate (some estimations are for a 34 day leg at present pace), the crews continue to be frugal with supplies. With over 5,500 miles left to sail to Cape Town, every yacht in the fleet will still find it easy to finish last.

Page two - a defiant message from Knut Frostadt
Page three - delight and frustration from Grant Dalton
Page four - 1600 position report