Around-the-World Sailboat Race : Jeantot Must Make Brief Stop for Repairs to Damaged Rigging

Race leader Phillipe Jeantot was in Recife, Brazil, during the weekend with rigging damage on his 60-foot cutter, Credit Agricole.

Jeantot radioed his support staff in France that an intermediate shroud (a cable that provides lateral support to the mast) was in danger of parting.

The forced stop could cost Jeantot his second win of the BOC Challenge solo around-the-world sailboat race.

At the start of this 5,300-nautical-mile final leg from Rio de Janeiro April 11, he had a 3-day 13-hour elapsed-time lead over his nearest rival, fellow Frenchman Titouan Lamazou aboard Ecureuil d’Aquitaine.

On this leg, Jeantot was 150 miles behind Lamazou when he decided on the Recife diversion. That distance could translate to a lead of 20 hours or more, whittling Jeantot’s edge to less than three days.

Aware of the stakes, Jeantot’s support people converged on Recife from Rio and France, determined to get the boat repaired and on its way as quickly as possible. They were hoping to make the turnaround in a matter of hours after Credit Agricole’s arrival.

Another boat, UAP-Pour Medicins Sans Frontieres with Jean Yves Terlain aboard, was ahead of Jeantot by 50 miles, but Jeantot has a total race elapsed time lead on Terlain of more than 11 days.

That tensions were mounting was evident at the start of the fourth leg when Lamazou surprised the race committee with notice that he intended to protest three boats for illegally crowding him at the starting line.

When the starting gun sounded, Jeantot broke across the line so close to the committee boat that those aboard could have touched the Frenchman’s boat as it went by.

Sandwiched between Credit Agricole and Spirit of Sydney was Finland’s Colt by Rettig with Pentti Salmi at the helm, jockeying to stay clear.

Lamazou, fourth from the committee boat and leeward of the three boats, notified the race committee an hour after the start that he was going to protest all three boats for impinging on his right of way.

Australia’s Ian Kiernan, the laid-back skipper of Spirit of Sydney, indicated surprise at Lamazou’s protest, but decided to protest Colt and Credit to protect himself.

Pentti Salmi radioed that he was going to have nothing to do with the protests and added that he had yielded right-of-way to Credit Agricole.

The protesting boats under the rules must arrive in Newport with red protest flags flying and then file written protests.

Race observers saw in Lamazou’s action the Frenchman’s determination to give himself every conceivable advantage in his race against Jeantot. If he goes ahead with the protest and it is upheld, the minimum penalty would be three hours.

Three hours can be crucial even in a race that will take almost five months of sailing to finish. Jeantot only beat Lamazou into Rio after the 8,300-mile third leg by three hours and 13 minutes.

Now with Jeantot’s pit stop at Recife, hours and minutes could decide the outcome.

Jeantot won the 27,500-mile BOC Challenge in 1982-83 with a sailing time of 159 days. That time could be cut to 130 days in this race, with the first boats expected here by May 5.

So far, Lamazou has been the only skipper in the race to be protested against successfully. He had three hours added to his first leg time for hitting Thursday’s Child, American Warren Luhrs’ boat, at the race start here last Aug. 30.

In all 15 boats are working there way up the Brazilian coast on the fourth leg. A 16th boat, Canadian John Hughes’ 41-footer Joseph Young, was 300 miles south of Rio at week’s end.

Slowed by a dismasting and subsequent repairs at the Falkland Island, Hughes must stop briefly at Rio before starting his own fourth leg in pursuit of the fleet.

In the Class 2 race (boats 40 to 50 feet long), American Mike Plant on Airco Distributor was 115 miles ahead of challenger Jean Luc Van Den Heede on Let’s Go.

Going into the final leg, Plant had a 4-day, 16-hour lead on the French mathematics teacher, who finished the third leg 32 hours ahead of the American.

Once past Cabo de Sao Roque, easternmost part of Brazil at 5 degrees south latitude, the boats can steer directly for Newport, picking up the northeast trade winds north of the Equator. Many of the boats will turn in some of their fastest week runs of the race on this homestretch.

Until reaching the turn, however, the boats must contend with contrary light, variable winds and a south-setting current that can reach two knots.

Coastal shipping and fishing boats are a particular hazard along this segment of the South American coast.