All the hoop-la over the America's Cup has overshadowed the heroic efforts of sailors in another yachting event.
But the spotlight will move from Auckland to Tauranga today when the first boat in the epic Around Alone race arrives for the Australasian stopover.
Leading the fleet is Swiss skipperBernard Stamm on the 18m Bobst Group Amor Lux, due into Tauranga harbour early today.
He looks likely to knock 48 hours off the previous record for the South Africa to New Zealand leg, set four years ago by Italian sailor Giovanni Soldini on Fila.
Soldini took 27 days and five hours to get from Cape Town to Auckland.
This time Tauranga is hosting the single-handed yachts because Auckland is busy with the America's Cup challenger series.
On the heels of the Swiss boat is Frenchman Thierry Dubois on Solidaires.
New Zealander Graham Dalton (brother of round-the-world sailor Grant Dalton) and Italian Simone Bianchetti (Tiscali) are battling for third place and are expected to arrive on Sunday.
Dalton's ambition to bring home the blue water title in his Tauranga-built Hexagon appears doomed. He has been dogged by a broken mast on the transatlantic qualifying voyage, auto pilot failure on the second leg from England to Cape Town, plus a smashed communications dome and illness in the tough Southern Ocean crossing.
There were 12 starters from Cape Town but Canadian John Dennis, 58, retired from the race.
The last of the 11 remaining yachts, representing nine nationalities, is expected to make Tauranga in two weeks.
Youngest competitor at 28 is the only woman and sole British skipper, Emma Richards, who is tackling the biggest challenge of her career.
Six Class One and five smaller Class Two boats will leave Tauranga on February 9 for Brazil on the fourth and longest leg of their eight-month, 28,800 nautical mile journey.
But for the duration of the stopover Tauranga will be turning it on.
The Around Alone Western Bay Finance Village at the southern end of the Tauranga bridge marina will be open free to the public from 11am to 4pm seven days a week.
From Saturday, the village will have entertainment, refreshments and guided walking tours. The yachts will be moored at new floating pontoons at the northern breakwater.
Reporters from around the world have come down from Auckland for the event.
