Yachting: Fast-chasing pack hunt Assa Abloy

By JULIE ASH

Assa Abloy has a narrow lead in leg three of the round-the-world yacht race - but only 16 nautical miles last night separated the top five boats which left Hobart on Saturday for Auckland.

Amer Sports One, News Corp, Tyco and illbruck are hot on the leaders' heels, and djuice was a further 27 nautical miles behind.

The all-female crew on Amer Sports Too were still stranded in Hobart late yesterday afternoon. They made a pit stop at Maria Island, just north of Hobart, to pick up replacement parts for the forestay damaged early in the leg.

On arrival in Hobart they discovered their rudder had been damaged by a submerged object in Bass Strait.

"A little setback like this won't hold us back for long," said skipper Lisa McDonald.

"It's pretty light out there. They won't get too far ahead of us."

Amer Sports One finished third in the Sydney to Hobart race, behind Assa Abloy and Swedish maxi Nicorette.

Amer Sports One skipper Grant Dalton said the 3 1/2-hour stop in Hobart gave the ocean race fleet a chance to have a quick bite and check their boats.

Amer Sports One blew out its water ballast system soon after the Sydney start.

"That took a while to fix and cost us a lot of miles," Dalton said.

"Over the past couple of days, we started to get back into it. So that damage didn't really matter a lot."

While the ocean racers could not celebrate the end of the Sydney to Hobart race, which was dominated by a violent storm and a tornado, Nicorette skipper Ludde Ingvall also had other things on his mind.

Ingvall was on the first plane back to Sydney as his new Terrey Hills home was being threatened by bush fires.

Assa Abloy, Tyco and illbruck have all been asked to explain why they did not make the scheduled morning radio position call on Saturday.

Officials did not say whether the failure could affect their standings.

Tyco will not have its finish place in the Sydney to Hobart race recorded after it was late in making a mandatory radio call to alert race officials as they sailed through Bass Strait.

Tyco's crew have lodged a protest against the decision, saying they were battling rough conditions at the time. The protest is likely to be heard while they are en route to Auckland.