Yachting: Yachts set for first-leg ripper

Right about now New Zealand yachtie Richard Mason is probably trying to convince himself that the risk factor was partly what drove him to the startline of the round-the-world yacht race.

A member of Sweden's Ericsson Racing Team, Mason lines up with six other crews and their super-charged yachts tomorrow in the first leg of the 32,000-nautical-mile race.

With the long-term forecast predicting a blistering run from Vigo to Cape Town for the new lighter, faster Volvo Open, 70 yachts look set to live up to their tag as Ocean Racing greyhounds.

Four years ago it took the leading yachts 29.5 days to get from Southampton (roughly three days north of Vigo) to Cape Town. Some predict it could take as little as 17 days to get to Cape Town this time - 17 days of helter-skelter sailing.

"We are very weary of these machines," Mason said from Spain.

"We have done a lot of sailing in big, big weather. We have been trying to break everything and have actually broken very little and fortunately we haven't broken many crew either."

The 6400-nautical-mile journey from Vigo to Cape Town is not only one of the longest in the nine-leg race but also one of the most tactical.

From Spain's northwest coast the fleet negotiate their way through the doldrums (the intertropical convergence zone) towards Brazil before trying to jump on a system that will take them to Cape Town.

Having claimed a morale boosting win in the first in-port race last weekend the Ericsson team will go into leg one confident.

"The first leg is about being up there, making the right sail choices and tactical decisions," Mason said. "Mostly it is about being confident."

After missing the first in-port race, Grant Wharington's Premier Challenge have rejoined the fleet.

Wharington's Australian syndicate had struggled with funding but are rumoured to have struck a deal with a Dutch company.

Wharington had stood down his crew, so has scrambled together a new crew which includes New Zealanders Fraser Brown, Jeff Scott and Campbell Field.

"The one thing about the Volvo is it is not about how much money you have got. It is how you deal with problems as they come along and how strong your teamwork is," said Mason, a trimmer on Assa Abloy during the 2001-2002 race. "Things that Kiwis are pretty good at."

Of the seven boats in the race, four are from Farr Yacht Design.

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Sailor of the year

Ray Haslar of the Kerikeri Yacht Club was named sailor of the year in Yachting New Zealand's excellence awards at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland on Thursday.

Haslar won this year's Auckland to Fiji race in his 10.6m keeler Jive Talkin, setting a New Zealand record for bluewater racing.

Young sailor was Paul Snow-Hansen, 15, who won the national Optimist champs, the Tanner Cup and Tauranga Cup in the same year.