31,600-Mile Race Off to a Chaotic Start

The new American presence in the world’s premier ocean race was quickly felt Sunday.

With spinnakers billowing in 15 knots of following breeze, Dennis Conner’s Toshiba collided with a press boat five minutes after Royal Navy officer Prince Edward, Duke of York, fired the starting cannon for the Whitbread Round-the-World Race.

But Toshiba later passed Sweden’s EF Language, crewed by San Francisco’s Paul Cayard and a handful of Yanks, to lead the fleet of 10 Whitbread 60s out of southern England on a 31,600-nautical mile voyage that is as much an adventure as it is a race.

First stop: Cape Town, South Africa, ETA Oct. 22, after 7,350 miles, the longest leg of the race.

New Zealand’s Chris Dickson was in command of Toshiba at the time of the incident five minutes after the start. Conner disembarked a half-hour before the gun. The 64-foot race boat apparently was not damaged, although its boom swept close to the heads of photographers aboard the press boat.

Two other U.S. entries are George Collins’ Chessie from Baltimore and Dr. Neil Barth’s Kiwi-crewed and Mexican-sponsored America’s Challenge from Newport Beach. They were fifth and seventh as the fleet left the Solent channel into open water.

The largest sendoff from a crowd jamming the Ocean Village Marina and waving little Union Jack flags was for Lawrie Smith’s tobacco-backed Silk Cut, which carries the hopes of the host country that has never won the race. The purple boat with the shark graphics left the dock to wild cheers and the majestic airs of “Rule Britannia.”

Later, the outpouring of affection caused Silk Cut to suffer the worst of the wash from a spectator fleet estimated at 2,000 boats--the largest turnout of private craft in local memory, perhaps since the evacuation of Dunkirk.

“It was mayhem out there, total mayhem,” Barth said. “We were over-run by spectator boats.”