Yachting: NZ sailor on own but in the lead anyway

By JULIE ASH

New Zealand's Chris Sayer is in a strong position in the Mini Transat yacht race - despite not being an official entrant.

The Mini Transat is a single-handed race across the Atlantic Ocean on a 21-foot sailboat.

The race, which started on Thursday, has two stages totalling 4500 miles. The first leg is from La Rochelle in France to the Canary Islands. The second leg is to Brazil.

Sayer missed being an official entrant after organisers decided to limit the field to 70 and change the way competitors qualified.

It is understood that to initially qualify for the event Sayer had to complete a 1000 nautical mile journey, which he did by sailing from Auckland to Tauranga, to Noumea, to Sydney and return, a total of 3500 miles.

But in February, organisers changed the rules by requiring entrants to qualify in Europe - too late for Sayer to comply.

Despite many attempts to persuade organisers to let him enter, they maintained that maritime authorities in France had limited entries to 70 as a safety precaution and no more would be accepted.

Sayer, who finished third in the 1999 event, has completed 24,000 offshore miles in Mini class boats

Mark Hauser, a director of Southern Spars, which helped Sayer with his mast and boom, said the yachtsman was "pretty upset about the whole thing. He doesn't have any problem with the race committee or organisers as he can understand their concern at having so many little boats out there floating around in such a lot of breeze. He is just disappointed the way things worked out."

But instead of returning home, Sayer decided to compete anyway.

"He started an hour behind the fleet and has made it clear he will steer clear of them," Hauser said.

Twenty-four hours into the race, Sayer was the unofficial leader.

"He is doing really well," Hauser said. "He is very determined."

Last night, the official leader was American Jonathan McKee, who had a slight edge over French sailor Sam Manuard.

* New Zealand's Sarah Macky has climbed from seventh to third after winning both her races in the Europe class at the world yachting championships in Cadiz, Spain, yesterday.

Macky, who was sixth and fourth in the opening two races, showed her class in blustery 20-knot winds.

She powered from fifth to first in race three, demonstrating blistering speed upwind. In race four she finished 40s clear of the field.

Macky was New Zealand's best performer at last month's Athens 2003 regatta, winning a bronze medal.

Finland's Sari Multala holds a healthy lead with three firsts and a second from four races in her pool.

New Zealand's Kate O'Brien also improved her position, lifting from 57th to 43rd with two top-20 finishes.

The 116 Europe class sailors are in two groups for the qualification races due to the size of the fleet.

As well as being a world championship regatta for each of the 11 Olympic sailing classes, it is a key regatta for Athens Olympic qualification. New Zealand have already secured a place in three classes - both men and women's mistral and men's 470.