First blood to Fanstone in trial for global assignment

The early trials of strength between the Volvo 60s preparing for next month's Volvo Ocean race once again showed how tight the competition will be after four of the yachts completed the Fastnet Race yesterday.

In a recent near 3,000-mile run across the Atlantic, John Kostecki in Illbruck had an advantage of 11 minutes over Kevin Shoebridge in Tyco. Yesterday, after 608 miles of the Fastnet, Kostecki had to concede defeat by 21 minutes to the only British skipper in the race, Jez Fanstone, in NewsCorp.

It could have gone either way as the winds, so blustery and bruising at the start off Cowes last Sunday, went light and flukey. It was, as Kostecki observed, a lesson in short-leg tactics. It was also, as Fanstone observed, another clear indication of how close the big one will be and how hard the nine-month journey will be for the crews.

Even closer was the battle between the two 80-footers, Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory and Ludde Ingvall's Nicorette. Glory had had the edge all the way and turned for the 240-mile run home from the Fastnet Rock six minutes ahead of Plattner with an afterguard packed with New Zealand America's Cup sailors, including the man with the responsibility of retaining the cup for the second time, Dean Barker.

But they were first reeled in and then overtaken as, with five miles to the finish in a fog-enshrouded Plymouth, Ingvall headed a little further offshore in search of a fresher breeze. It worked and he won by two minutes and 47 seconds after 62 hours of racing.

The Morning Glory crewman Hamish Pepper said: "We never really thought about winning the top trophy. The guys on board were just doing their job, getting on with what they are good at.

"The race went OK. We were a little disappointed not to have finished higher up, but it came down to the light, shifty wind conditions at the end. This was my first Rolex Fastnet and it was a tough race."

True to its name, the all-black hull of owner Giovanni Agnelli's 92-foot Stealth had crept out of the murk to be the first monohull to finish, just seconds before 4am. Racing skipper Kenny Read said it had been exciting, even though they had taken six hours to cover the last 12 miles.

He also thought that distance racing was becoming fashionable again and that racing upwind and down over short courses was becoming "burned out". He will have to chew on more of that diet, however, as he is helmsman on Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes in the America's Cup elimination series which starts in Auckland next autumn.