Solo yachties set sail for Wellington

Canadian Derek Hatfield gets underway, onboard his yacht Activhouse, for the second leg of the Velux 5 Oceans. Ainhoa Sanchez/w-w-i.com

The race to Wellington began in Cape Town overnight (NZT) for the five skippers involved in the second leg of the solo round the world yacht race.

With Table Mountain providing the backdrop, the small fleet of 60 foot yachts crossed the start line to begin a 7000 nautical mile sprint across the Southern Ocean.

The original start had been planned for Sunday but it was postponed due to gale-force winds and huge seas off the coast of South Africa.

Canadian 58-year-old Derek Hatfield led his four rivals out of Table Bay and into open water where the 15 knots wind dropped considerably.

Leg one winner from La Rochelle in France, Brad Van Liew of the United States, was second followed by Belgian sailor Christophe Bullens. Following them were Poland's Zbigniew Gutkowski and Briton Chris Stanmore-Major who struggled to get his main sail up and lost momentum on his way to the start line.

The boats are expected to arrive in Wellington in early to mid January and leave for Salvador, Brazil on February 6.

Wellington has never been a stopover in the seven previous editions of the race, which visited Auckland in 1998 and Tauranga in 2002.

- NZPA