Solo Around-the-World Sailboat Race : Hughes Finally Gets a Mast, Sets Sail on Field

Canadian John Hughes, his lost mast replaced in a Falkland Islands pit stop, is racing up the South Atlantic for Rio de Janeiro in an effort to close the gap between him and the other 15 boats in the BOC Challenge solo around-the-world sailboat race.

At week’s end Hughes, aboard the 41-foot sloop Joseph Young, was 1,276 miles from Rio. He spent 13 days in the Falklands, delayed by the late arrival of an RAF plane with his mast and then by gales that prevented a sea trial of the new rig. He restarted last Monday.

In reaching the Falklands March 23, Hughes accomplished the extraordinary feat of sailing 4,400 nautical miles through the Roaring Forties of the Pacific and around Cape Horn with a only jury rig of two spinnaker poles supporting a single small sail.

With the help of friends, press and many others in Canada, as well as the Royal Navy in the Falklands, Hughes replaced the lost mast and sails, reprovisioned and departed for Rio, 1,800 miles to the north.

Hughes expects to arrive there April 20. Hughes will stop only long enough to undergo a race inspection and take on water and provisions before departing for the finish here at Newport.

Meanwhile, the 15 other BOC boats started the last leg of the race on Saturday.

Several of the boats in top positions are separated from each other by only a day or two. A minor breakdown or tactical error in the hunt for wind could alter the race outcome.

The first 1,000 miles away from Rio are among the most difficult. The boats must battle both contrary winds, calms and an adverse current as they sail up the Brazilian coast before turning the corner at Recife and picking up the northeast trades that gradually fill in north of the Equator.

Jean-Luc Van Den Heede aboard Let’s Go is second in Class II behind American Mike Plant on Airco Distributor. Van Den Heede said he is out to break Phillipe Jeantot’s 28-day time for the leg in the 1982-83 Challenge. He’s looking for light-to-moderate winds to give his light (10,000 pounds) 45-footer an advantage.

Plant, along with several other skippers such as Ian Kiernan on Spirit of Sydney and Mark Schrader on Lone Star, will be hoping for heavier weather.

“It will be a difficult leg for me if it is all light air,” said Schrader, whose Valiant 47 is one of the heavier boats in the fleet.

There will be intense competition in Class I between current fleet leader Jeantot on Credit Agricole and fellow Frenchman Titouan Lamazou on Ecureuil d’Aquitaine, who is only 3 1/2 days behind in total elapsed time.

Lamazou said he is optimistic. “I did not have very good feelings going into Leg III, and I was right.” He was referring to the damage his keel sustained when he hit a rock off Cape Horn. Nevertheless, he finished second to Jeantot by only three hours.

“This time, though, I think things will go well. I can feel it,” he said. “But I will have to take risks if I am to overtake Jeantot. I have nothing to lose at this point. I am looking at radical options.”

The lead boat could finish here May 4 or 5.