19 confirmed for Around Alone

Entry list for September's solo circumnavigation shaping up. James Boyd looks at the form

With the final deadline for Around Alone, the singlehanded round the world race with stops (formerly the BOC Challenge) now passed, Clipper Ventures have published the final entry list of particants. The list includes 19 skippers from 11 countries, with eight in Class I, 10 in Class II, and one Venturer Class entry.

Although there are 166 days still to go until the 15 September start in Newport, RI, these skippers are firmly in the starting blocks and have paid the first £1,000 installment on their entry fee. Late entries will be considered until 1 August, and Clipper Ventures are aware of several campaigns, pending sponsorship, which intend to register. Among these are Mike Golding and Australian entry John Biddlecombe.

Race organiser Sir Robin Knox-Johnston commented "Clipper Ventures is organising this historic event for the first time, and I am excited at the number and quality of skippers who will make this Around Alone a classic ocean race".

The final deadline for race entries brought in two entries last week. Australian campaign, Global Quest Yachting, headed up by renowned ex-BOC Challenge skipper Kanga Birtles, has just appointed Spanish lawyer-cum-skipper Unai Basurko De Miguel as their entry into Class I. Secondly, professional short-handed yachtsman, 35 year old Australian Adam Lambert, has signed up in Class II.

The form

In class one the top competition is likely to be between Vendee Globe veterans Marc Thiercelin, Thierry Dubois and Franco-Swiss sailor Bernard Stamm. Pitched against them will be Italian Simone Bianchetti sailing Catherine Chabaud's potent Lombard design, the former Whirlpool. Graham Dalton, elder brother of Grant, has what potentially will be the hottest boat in the fleet - a new design by the Owen Clarke Design Group - but Dalton has little previous experience in long distance singlehanded racing. Californian Bruce Schwab is a similarly unknown quantity racing a new boat with a free standing rig.

Unai Basurko De Miguel has had good results in crewed racing - he skippered the Spanish 50footer to victory in the offshore race of the 1997 Commodore's Cup, but again has little form in the singlehanded offshore racing.

Following the battle between the two Finot Open 50s Cray Valley and Magellan Alpha in the last race, class two seems have become all the more popular this time round with the semi-pros racing Open 50s and 40s. Six out of the ten entries are from North America.

The battle in this class looks likely to be between two former Around Alone competitors - the jovial Brad van Liew, a former stunt pilot and rodeo star, who was nipping at the heels of the two front runners in the last race aboard Balance Bar and the hard as nails Russian Viktor Yazykov, who sailed the Open 40 Wind of Change in the last race.

Van Liew has now purchased Magellan Alpha, while Yazykov has a new Owen Clarke design under construction in Italy especially for the race. Tim Kent looks to be a top contender in Everest Horizontal an all carbon-fibre Jim Antrim design built originally for Bob Gay to race in the last Vendee Globe.

At present there is only one entry in the Class 3, 'Venturer' class for racer-cruisers. This is George Stricker, who has attempted the last two running of this race without success. This time he is sailing the massive aluminium battleship Open 60, formerly Project Amazon which Sebastien Reidl sailed half of the first leg on four years ago.

We think it would be in the interests of the race if Clipper Venturers put Stricker's boat into Class One and decided instead to make class 3 the Open 40 class. This will be a fascinating race among some hot boats.

Bermudan entry Alan Paris is racing a new design by Australian Scott Jutson, who designed David Adams' Open 50 True Blue, the class two winner in 1994/5. Interestingly Paris' Open 40 is a Kevlar boat with a unique trim tab arrangement on the keel. Bob Adams' Perseverance is sistership to Yazykov's Wind of Change, which proved exceptionally quick in the last race, although this may have been the Yazykov factor.

Part of the charm of this event is that it attracts some fascinating individuals. Falling squarely into this camp is Japanese adventurer Kojiro Shiraishi, who is campaigning a state of the art Groupe Finot-designed Open 40 and continuing the tradition of Japanese participation in this event. He has made a non-stop singlehanded circumnavigation and was part of Bruno Peyron's crew on board the maxi cat Commodore Explorer for the west to east transpac record attempt in 1998. Shiraishi was shore crew to Tokyo taxi driver, abstract artist and tenor sax player Yukoh Tada in the 1990/1 race (similarly Gildas Iauch, racing Jean-Luc van den Heede's former Vendee Enterprise Open 60 this time was once Philippe Jeantot's shore crew).

While the entry list is shaping up nicely for Around Alone - although some more top notch Open 60s would not go amiss - the main problem still remaining to be solved is over the issue of an event sponsor for Around Alone. Clipper Ventures currently have the sports marketing firm Octagon working on this.

Skipper	LOA	Name	Designer	Nation	Notes
Class One - 50-60ft
Bernard Stamm	60'	Bobst Group Armor Lux	Pierre Rolland	SWI	Rolland design - transat and mono 24 hr record holder
Bruce Schwab	60'	Ocean Planet	Tom Wylie	USA	Free standing rig
Gildas Iauch	60'	Dyanamicdiabetic.com	Harle-Mortain	FRA	ex Helvim/Vendee Enterprise
Graham Dalton	60'	Hexagon	Owen Clarke DG	NZ	brand new Kingfisher clone
Unai Basurko de Miguel	60'	Global Quest Yachting	Murray/Dovell	AUST	Still a bit of a mystery this one
Marc Thiercelin	60'	TBC	Groupe Finot	FRA	ex-Somewhere
Simone Bianchetti	60'	Tiscali Global Challenge	Marc Lombard	ITA	ex-Whirlpool
Thierry Dubois	60'	Solidaires	Joubert-Nivelt	FRA
Class Two - 40-50ft
Adam Lambert	50'	TBA	TBA	AUST
Brad Van Liew	50'	Mission America	Groupe Finot	USA	ex Magellan Alpha
Duncan Gladman	50'	Canada Challenge	Lyons/Martin	CAN	ex Balance Bar/Newscastle Australia
John Dennis	50'	Bold Statement	Peter Abbot	CAN	ex Brian Hancock Great Circle
Tim Kent	50'	Everest Horizontal	Jim Antrim	USA
Viktor Yazykov	50'	TBC	Owen Clarke DG	RUS	Potentially hottest boat in the class
Alan Paris	40'	BTC Velocity	Scott Jutson	BERM
Bob Adams	40'	Perserverance	Adams/Baker/Yazykov	USA	Built for the last race, but skipper withdrew
Derek Hatfield	40'	Spirit of Canada	Bob Dresser	CAN
Kojiro Shiraishi	40'	Japan	Groupe Finot	JAP
Class Three - Venturer
George Stricker	60'	Tin Can	Eric Sponberg	USVI	ex Project Amazon, massive massive Open 60