Yacht Racing .com

HATFIELD'S CHARGING PROBLEMS
12th February 2003

Canadian skipper Derek Hatfield, the first to cross the line on Sunday's restart of Around Alone Leg 4, has today informed the race office that he is experiencing charging problems on board his Open 40 Spirit of Canada. The latest positions at 06:00GMT (19:00hrs NZ time) show that Hatfield is heading back towards New Zealand, and the skipper has confirmed that until the problem is localised and resolved, he has turned the boat around whilst still not too far from land.

Given that this 7,880 nm leg will take the fleet furthest away from any landfall for the longest duration into the vast oceanic deserts around the bottom of the world, Hatfield's decision is a cautionary measure. With a lot of the Around Alone teams still based in New Zealand, his shore support is currently being aided by nearly every other team in the race in order to have ready on hand all the possible solutions to this electrical problem. We will update you as we receive more information.

Meanwhile each of the skippers are passing the International Date Line, which is giving them the opportunity to relive February 11th all over again! Read the logs from Brad Van Liew and Emma Richards in the Skippers' Logs section.