Bekking Navigates Into Lead

Navigator Bouwe Bekking of the Netherlands, alongside tactician Dee Smith of San Francisco and with skipper Grant Dalton of New Zealand grinding a winch, has driven a boat with Italian and Swedish sponsors into a share of the early lead of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Nautor Amer Sports One is fairly typical of the international mix of the eight-boat fleet that intends to sail 32,700 nautical miles before finishing the world’s premier ocean race at Kiel, Germany, in June.

There are sailors from 15 nations, all of which were affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that hung like a cloud over the days leading up to this event. There was a minute of silence observed by the competitors and about 5,000 spectators before the sailors set out.

San Francisco’s Mark Rudiger, navigator and co-skipper on Sweden’s Assa Abloy, e-mailed from his boat: “There is incredible relief onboard, finally getting away from craziness and focusing on working into the lead.”

At last sighting, 30 miles beyond the Solent, the narrow channel between southern England and the Isle of Wight, Assa Abloy had overtaken Nautor One in a close fight for the lead. A mile back was illbruck, the favorite from Germany, with John Kostecki of Fairfax, Calif., as skipper.

First stop will be Cape Town, South Africa, 7,350 miles away. That makes the first leg the longest of nine. .

The U.S. has no entry but 11 Americans are sprinkled among six of the crews. Three are women: Nautor Amer Sports Too skipper Lisa McDonald and two members of her all-female crew, Katie Pettibone and Melissa Purdy.

The women faltered at the start when their spinnaker ripped apart just before they crossed the starting line in 14 knots of breeze.

Amid several hundred spectator boats churning the channel into foam and chaos, they overcame that setback and at last report had moved up to the middle of the pack.

Sweden’s SEB, conspicuous with its green hull and sails, was first across the starting line, but Dalton, sailing his seventh race around the world, ordered Nautor One’s water ballast expelled to lighten the boat and spurted to a commanding lead.

All of the boats started with billowing asymmetric spinnakers and were producing speeds up to 17 knots (19.6 mph).