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Around Alone claims first casualty
SOUTHAMPTON, England -- Italy's Simone Bianchetti is the first casualty in the second leg of the single-handed Around Alone race after his autopilots broke down. Bianchetti was lying in second place when he was forced to turn back on Wednesday to make repairs to his Open 60 Tiscali's self-steering mechanism. Despite having two back up systems, he was unable to find the fault and decided to seek help in the French port of Brest rather than steer the 6,800 miles to Cape Town by hand. "Reaching Cape Town at the helm for 30 consecutive days was absolutely out of the question. Being here today could appear depressing but my motivation is intact, I think the race is still open. It will be important to leave as soon as possible," he said. Although the expected depression did not turn out as bad as expected on Wednesday, there is another storm looming over the Azores that threatens to block the path of the fleet. First leg winner Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm told the race office: "This low pressure is spreading right now and covers 2,000 miles of ocean, bringing winds of 45 to 50 knots of wind and heavy seas. The only way round this one is by Newfoundland!" Class II skipper Alan Paris of Bermuda said he would put his Open 40 BTC Velocity into La Coruna in Northern Spain and sit out the storm -- an unusual move for a solo sailor. "In life we all make decisions that are important, some more than others. I see no other course than the relative safety for my yacht in a harbour, riding out the storm, but having me on dry land," Paris said. The second leg is one of the most challenging tactical legs of the race as it takes the solo sailors all the way from the North Atlantic to the Southern Ocean via the Equator, passing different weather systems and ocean currents along the way. After crossing the Bay of Biscay the solo sailors will be looking to reach the North East Trade Winds to carry them down to the Doldrums -- the notorious windless zone that can trap sailors for weeks -- just north of the Equator. After the Doldrums they will need to negotiate a route around the South Atlantic's high-pressure system. The options are to take the traditional longer route to the west, skirting the windless area, or to take the more high-risk direct option of sailing upwind into easterly winds on the approach to Cape Town. The winner of the second leg is expected in Cape Town around November 8. The 28,775-mile, five-leg, single-handed race is held every four years. There are two classes of monohulls from 12 to 18 metres (40 to 60 feet). The race has stopovers in Torbay, Cape Town, Tauranga, New Zealand and Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, before returning to Newport, U.S. in April 2003. Around Alone Leg Two -- Torbay, England, to Cape Town, South Africa: Distance to finish Class 1 Open 60
Class II
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