Fickle finish

As Around Alone Bernard Stamm closes to within 500 miles of the Newport, RI finish line

As international media, sponsors, teams and Around Alone organisation gather at the Newport Shipyard in anticipation of the first arrivals from Wednesday 30 May onwards, the final outcome of this Around Alone for Class 1 is still being decided out on the water off Bermuda.

Around Alone Class 1 overall leader, Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm is so near to certain victory, but is also not close enough until the finish line is crossed. With a 300 mile lead over second place Simone Bianchetti on Tiscali, Stamm is still pushing all the way: “I don’t know how to slow the pace, even the boat doesn’t understand what’s happening to her… she doesn’t like this at all.” Bobst Group-Armor Lux is going upwind at 10 knots boatspeed with less than 500 miles to cover until the finish not only of Leg 5 but also of Stamm’s 28,000 mile marathon sprint around the world that is his Around Alone.

"I had a small passage of downwind sailing, which was fantastic. Right now, I have headwinds, then the wind will shift to reaching conditions, then on the next shift return to upwind conditions, but we will finish this circumnavigation in strong downwind conditions I think… I haven’t checked the weather, but in any case it’s not going to be a smooth ride, and the temperature is going to drop once I leave the Gulf Stream effect and Bermudan high, and get into the Labrador current.”

The rest of Class 1, including the two Open 50s in Class 2, are now converging just south of Bermuda, and soon we will see the result of the different options taken by each skipper. Right now it looks as though Bianchetti and Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet will be going head to head over second place in the same stretch of water. Schwab’s westerly route has paid him huge dividends as his slim Tom Wylie design lies just 50 miles behind the Lombard Open 60 but from now Schwab foresees that the final 1,000 miles will be: "a minefield of vague lows and highs and mild fronts swimming about like so much soup. What a mess! It will be interesting and frustrating at the same time. Everyone will have to deal with it on an even basis."

Right now Schwab is trying to sail as low as possible without jibing to stay in better breeze. Meanwhile, French skipper Thierry Dubois on Solidaires is coming over to the west in better breeze - and coming back up little by little to lie 130 miles from the American Open 60 now, and could well steal into third position during the final 900 miles of the race.

Bang in the middle of these two is Class 2 leader Brad van Liew on Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America, his Open 50 commanding a 200 mile lead over fellow American Tim Kent on Open 50 Everest Horizontal. Kent, the self-confessed ‘underdog’ in Class 2 is for the first time relishing the fact that he is closer to van Liew than he has ever been during Around Alone, and actually ahead of an Open 60, that of Emma Richards, who is paying dearly for her extreme easterly route on Pindar. Gybing for the first time in two weeks, Kent is racing north in the corridor of good wind, which is eluding Emma over to the east: "We are still under full main - we have not needed to reef the main even once yet - and are flying the mighty Code 5."

Meanwhile Derek Hatfield on Spirit of Canada was wisely warned by his fellow competitors that the last 1,000 miles to Newport would be torturous: "They were dead right." After the severe weather around the Falklands, now Hatfield is enduring light headwinds for the third day in a row, and is still 780 miles from Salvador, Brazil. To make matters worse he is sailing with reduced main: "I'm afraid there is some damage at the number one reef point so I may not get the main up fully before reaching Salvador." Hatfield has taken a trip half way up the mast to clear the lazyjacks from the runners and bring the main up one notch, so that now there is over half the main up and he can tack the boat more easily.

The finish line for Around Alone Line is a transit from Castle Hill Lighthouse, Newport RI at 41deg 27.6N 71deg 21.8 W. The boats will then dock at the Newport Shipyard, 1 Washington Street.

POSITIONS AT 1400GMT 28th APRIL 2003

Class 1
Boat Lat Lon AvgBsp AvgHeading DTF
1. Bobst Group-Armor Lux 35 09.028 N, 65 39.330 W, 72.98 nm, 9.13 kt, 331 °T, 464.10 nm
2. Tiscali 30 55.050 N, 62 29.280 W, 85.14 nm, 10.62 kt, 329 °T, 763.86 nm
3. Ocean Planet 29 36.360 N, 63 11.120 W, 74.88 nm, 9.36 kt, 319 °T, 814.82 nm
4. Solidaires 29 46.550 N, 58 20.480 W, 96.12 nm, 12.02 kt, 328 °T, 943.86 nm
5. Pindar 27 40.800 N, 56 07.220 W, 75.40 nm, 9.41 kt, 336 °T, 1114.98 nm

Class 2
1. Tommy Hilfiger 29 24.290 N, 61 37.220 W, 76.43 nm, 9.56 kt, 345 °T, 864.82 nm
2. Everest Horizontal 26 30.100 N, 59 39.500 W, 64.00 nm, 8.00 kt, 323 °T, 1067.66 nm 3. Spirit of yukoh 22 46.200 N, 54 41.400 W, 57.30 nm, 7.17 kt, 326 °T, 1400.11 nm
4. BTC Velocity 18 25.900 N, 52 56.800 W, 70.43 nm, 8.80 kt, 326 °T, 1673.11 nm

Spirit of Canada (Leg 4) at 13:00 GMT - 24 24. 000 S 37 00. 000 W, avg bt spd 7.5 kts