Rowing: Rowers shrug off obstacles and race towards a record

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

There's a hole in their keel, their oar handles have worn through and poisonous creatures are lurking in the waters around them.

But two New Zealand policemen are still holding it together at the head of the fleet in the transatlantic rowing challenge - and the race record draws closer with each oar stroke.

Steve Westlake and Matt Goodman have met their share of obstacles over the past few days, with 500 nautical miles of the Tenerife-Barbados crossing still to go.

But they are still on target to finish in the next five days and shave three days off the 41-day record set in 1996 by fellow Kiwis Rob Hamill and Phil Stubbs.

Their boat, Telecom Challenge One, has suffered keel damage - a decent gouge has been ripped out of the front.

The men don't know what the boat hit, but presume it happened when they put out the sea anchor to stop themselves drifting backwards earlier in the week.

In their eagerness to be first across the line, the New Zealand men have worn out all the rubber grips on their oar handles and are now down to bare carbon fibre.

And to top it all off, Westlake was stung by a bluebottle jellyfish when he dived overboard for a wash.

On the positive side, the pair have picked up speed in the past 48 hours as the light headwinds that hampered their progress during the week swung around behind their boat.

Race organisers predict the New Zealand men will cross the finish line next Friday after 40 days at sea.

But Hamill, their campaign manager, reckons they will get faster over the next few days and should reach Barbados by Wednesday.

By official estimations, Australians Patrick Weinrauch and Paul McCarthy would be another three days behind, and the New Zealand women are on target to finish third, a week after the Kiwi men.

Steph Brown and Jude Ellis were yesterday rowing at roughly the same speed as the New Zealand men - covering 55 miles in 24 hours.

Brown was suffering from temporary arthritis in her hands and said she could no longer make a fist.

"But I can still row and wipe my bottom, and that's all that really matters," she said.

Both New Zealand crews have been using satellite phones to communicate with the outside world - a far cry from 1996, when Hamill and Stubbs only had a shortwave radio to listen to the BBC World Service.

Today's rowers don't bother with the BBC, choosing to listen to their portable CD players instead.

Westlake decided to use his rare spare time on the boat to learn to speak German. But so far, he says he has learned only to say hello and goodbye, because he had to leave the written manual on land to save weight.

Yesterday the New Zealand men had extended their lead over the Australian doctors on Freedom to 120 miles.

The women had 870 miles to go, and were 24 miles ahead of Win Belgium.

But the backmarkers in the fleet were yesterday going backwards in the headwinds. The last boat in the fleet, the Spanish Euskadi, is expected to arrive in Barbados at the end of March next year.