Yachting: Volvo boats battle for Sydney-Hobart lead

Sydney - Five Volvo round-the-world yachts were battling for the lead in the Sydney to Hobart race today after the front-runners crossed Bass Strait in a race dominated by a violent early storm and tornado.

Race officials said the first five boats -- illbruck, Tyco, News Corp, djuice and ASSA ABLOY -- were near Flinders Island off the northeast tip of Tasmania with about 220 nautical miles of the 630-mile race remaining.

Tyco, however, will not have her finishing position recorded after failing to make a mandatory radio call to alert race officials as she entered Bass Strait, traditionally the toughest section of the race.

Eight state-of-the-art Volvo-class 60 footers (18 metre) are competing in the 630-nautical mile Sydney-Hobart as part of the third leg of their race around the world.

Only four nautical miles separated the first four boats at a scheduled early-morning radio position report today, with the leaders likely to cross the finish line in the capital of the island state of Tasmania some time on Saturday morning.

The leaders were sailing into winds ranging between 10 and 20 knots but conditions were expected to ease later today.

Pre-race favourite and defending champion Nicorette was in sixth place and was making up ground slowly after the fleet battled strong southwesterly winds of 25-30 knots in Bass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania.

The Swedish maxi was knocked on its side and sucked into a tornado which hit some of the lead boats several hours after the start on Wednesday.

Nicorette had been in the lead but had her main sail torn from its lashings in the tornado and lost six hours as the crew worked to repair the damage and fit a new sail.

Dramatic video footage taken from the boat showed a huge, funnel-shaped cloud loom across the horizon towards the boat.

The tornado and heavy weather down Australia's east coast have forced 14 boats to retire from the starting fleet of 75.

Australian Skandia, which finished second to Nicorette last year when she was known as Wild Thing, became the first headline casualty when she suffered extensive sail damage in Wednesday's storm.

Skipper Grant Wharington's maxi had been expected to be one of few boats capable of stopping Nicorette from claiming back-to-back line honours titles in one of the world's toughest ocean races.

Australian Skandia limped back into Sydney on Thursday.

The Volvo class yachts have made most of the running in often difficult headwinds during the first two days of the race.

German-backed illbruck, Australian entry News Corp and Bermudan yacht Tyco have swapped the lead several times. News Corp, with Briton Jez Fanstone at the helm, surprised her bigger rivals and led the fleet out of Sydney Harbour on Wednesday.

US skipper John Kostecki steered illbruck to wins in the first two legs of the Volvo race from Southampton and Cape Town.

Illbruck led a group of about 14 boats past Green Cape, about 400km south of Sydney, into Bass Strait yesterday but the lead changed hands several times during a day and night of close racing.

Tyco, forced out of the second leg of the round-the-world race with a broken rudder, fell foul of race officials for being seven minutes late in making the radio call demanded of all boats within an hour of them passing Green Cape.

Race official Peter Campbell said the action against Tyco did not constitute a disqualification and would not affect her standing in the third leg of the round-the-world race.

The so-called "Green Cape" rule was one of a raft of safety rules brought in after the tragic 1998 race when six sailors died after a weather "bomb" exploded over the fleet in Bass Strait.

Among the latest retirements, Terra Firma skipper Peter Bartells was taken to a coastal hospital with minor neck injuries after a fall on his small Australian yacht.

This year's fleet was the smallest in 28 years, due in part to the rising costs in insurance and mandatory safety equipment which stem from the 1998 race.

- REUTERS