Yachting: Spirits up despite coming last

By JULIE ASH

The first leg of the round-the-world race is proving a huge but exciting challenge for New Zealand's Sharon Ferris on Amer Sports Too.

The all-woman crew have slipped from sixth to last in the eight-boat fleet. They should reach Cape Town, and the end of the first leg, in under a week.

Their syndicate team-mates, Amer Sports One, still lead the field over illbruck, News Corp and Tyco.

ASSA Abloy, who are north-east of the fleet, are fifth, followed by djuice, SEB and Amer Sports Too.

Competing in her first round-the-world event, Ferris said it had been gruelling.

"It has been tough, a lot tougher than any other race I have been involved in."

Amer Sports Too - one-half of the Nautor Challenge campaign run by New Zealand's Grant Dalton - assembled only a couple of months before the race.

In comparison, the German-backed illbruck team have been together for the past 2 1/2 years.

"Our aim in the first leg is to learn as much as we can about the boat to make sure we can improve as each leg goes on," Ferris said.

"It was really slow there for a while, but now there has been a bit of wind, everything is going well and we are in good spirits." Like many in the fleet, Amer Sports Too have been affected by equipment failure.

"We have had a tank leak and spinnakers break, but that's about all," Ferris said. "Generally, we are happy with the boat and the way it is going."

She said the crew were looking forward to reaching Cape Town.

"My parents are going to be there and my brother Justin, who is a sail maker with illbruck. It's now expected it will take us 34 days to complete this first leg instead of the estimated 30, so we are all really looking forward to getting there."

Amer Sports Too, skippered by Lisa McDonald, is the fourth all-woman campaign in the round-the-world event since Tracy Edwards' Maiden in 1989.

Several crew sailed with McDonald on EF Education in the last race, including New Zealanders Keryn Henderson and Bridget Suckling. Another EF graduate, American Katie Pettibone, was also part of Dawn Riley's America3 and America True challengers for the America's Cup.

"Overall, the sailing has been quite pleasant, but at the moment all the girls are fighting hard to keep up with djuice and SEB," Ferris said.