Ultimate victory for Stamm

As Swiss skipper pilots his 'ship' across Around Alone finish line PLUS photos

After 28,800 miles and a cumulative time at sea of more than 115 days since the race started from New York on 15 September last year, Open 60 sailor Bernard Stamm has won Around Alone 2002-3, the second victory in a major yachting event for Switzerland this year.

The small spectator fleet caught up with Stamm's blue hulled Open 60 just after dawn as the boat was wafting along slowly under full main and fraction genniker in a light southeasterly. The boat looked in good order, unlike previous arrivals where Bobst Group-Armor Lux has appeared to have been through the wars with broken gear. Her skipper was also in fine spirits joking about how he had shaved and brushed his teeth ready for his arrival.

Stamm had to gybe twice before he crossed the finish line off the Castlehill lighthouse at the mouth to Newport harbour at 07:20:10 EST (11:20:10 GMT) completing a race which he has dominated in every way - winning all but one of the legs and crossing the finish line first in every leg (in the previous leg he was penalised 48 hours for stopping in the Falkland Isles to repair his keel).

Around Alone is scored on points and Stamm scored 49 out of a possible 50. To give an indication of how much the Open 60 game has been raised, Stamm's overall elapsed time between the five legs was 115 days, 18 hours, 27 minutes and 23 seconds. This is one day less than 1998/9 Around Alone winner Giovanni Soldini’s time despite Stamm racing course that was 13% longer due to the introduction of the first leg across to Brixham. His average boat speed is 10.36 knots.