Farr Behind

Ed Gorman reports as Grant Dalton storms away at the start of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The opening sequence underlined another facet of the Nautor campaign, namely their lack of race practice and time on the water. Forty minutes into it, as the pink and grey Amer Sports One surfed past Yarmouth at 12 knots, the crew peeled to a new spinnaker only to discover a halyard jam at the top of the mast on the first sail. For several minutes the boat struggled on with the old sail flogging to leeward before a crewmember was hoisted to the top to free it. The first of many teething problems for Dalts?

Despite this setback Dalts was over half a minute ahead of Krantz's SEB at Hurst with illbruck a few seconds back in third. The Germany-based boat looked solid and well-sailed. Having been the first to get their kite drawing, Kostecki's crew was also the first to fly a staysail underneath it as the breeze softened at the entrance to the Needles Channel.

At that stage Djuice was holding fourth place to weather of Kevin Shoebridge's Tyco in fifth. Next was Assa which then became the second boat to suffer sail failure when the tack blew off their spinnaker as the super-light Assa, driven by skipper Roy Heiner, sliced its way through the chop. While the women caught up some of their early losses, a disappointing starter was Jez Fanstone's News Corp which broached early on and then looked overpowered for much of the way down the Solent, passing Hurst in seventh spot.

There's a long way to go on this opening 7,350-mile leg and possibly all of the above will prove highly misleading once the Tavern of Seas comes into view for the winning crew in a month's time.