Yacthing: Battered sailors cry foul

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

A pack of exhausted sailors want to change the route of next year's round-the-world race after a bruising rehearsal of the Sydney-Auckland leg.

Resting back on land in Auckland yesterday, the crews of Illbruck, Tyco and News Corp hope they won't have to endure the same difficult broken trip in 12 months.

Yachts in the Volvo Ocean Race are scheduled to start leg three with the Sydney-Hobart fleet on Boxing Day, stop over in Hobart for three hours, then continue on to Auckland.

But skippers who sailed in the practice race are unhappy with the new idea and will ask for the route to be changed.

Kiwi skipper Kevin Shoebridge, at the helm of Tyco, said the Sydney-Hobart alone was "too brutal" on the boats and crew.

"You suffer more damage in that short crossing than in a normal round-the-world leg," he said. "We would have struggled to turn the boat around in three hours when we arrived in Hobart. It needs to be broken into two separate legs, with maybe three or four days' rest in Hobart."

When the yachts arrived in Hobart last Friday, race organisers realised the crews and boats needed more time to recover before setting off for Auckland, and started them together the following day.

A fourth starter, Swedish boat Assa Abloy, chose not to carry on and stopped to fix damage.

Illbruck skipper John Kostecki's crew were "mentally and physically beat up" on the stretch to Hobart, but still managed to win the battle to Auckland. He is all for a mass restart in the race proper.

"Restarting boats at different times means there could be huge gaps between the boats arriving in Auckland," he said. "A new start for all the fleet gives us a better chance of having a closer race."

But the head of the News Corp campaign, New Zealander Ross Field, does not think the boats should go anywhere near Tasmania.

"It's ridiculous. This is supposed to be an ocean race - not a race of pitstops," he said. "We should start with the Sydney-Hobart race and carry on straight to New Zealand. The Hobart stop is just an added expense the race doesn't need."

But all three campaigns agreed the rehearsal was an invaluable lesson in the middle of building new boats for the Volvo race.

Illbruck, the German syndicate also doing an America's Cup campaign, led the teams into Auckland on Thursday night.

After finishing third in the Sydney-Hobart, the yacht known as Pinta charged ahead of the other Volvo 60s in the Tasman crossing, but parked up for six hours at North Cape. Tyco, the Bermudan entry, closed the gap and finished half an hour behind.

News Corp's crew arrived disappointed after tearing sails and hitting an unknown object in Bass Strait.

The boat will be taken out of the water on Monday to fix damage to the keel and rudder. Tyco and Pinta will be shipped back to the United States.