Sailing: MacArthur leads after Golding hits trouble

Ellen MacArthur took the lead in the Route du Rhum single-handed race yesterday as the weather forced yet more retirements, while Emma Richards took third place on the second leg of the Around Alone Race.

MacArthur's Kingfisher took over at the head of the monohull fleet heading from St Malo across the Atlantic to Point à Pitre, Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, moving ahead of Mike Golding's Ecover, which broke its daggerboard on Wednesday. Golding, who is now five miles behind, is repairing his damaged boat.

The two leading boats are increasing their advantage and have about 350 miles to go to reach the archipelago of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. Loick Peyron's Fujifilm was attended to by firefighters after the Frenchman set off the distress beacon on Wednesday night as his dismasted trimaran began falling apart.

In Cape Town, Thierry Dubois on Solidaires and Richards on Pindar crossed the line in record pace-setting times of just over 30 days for the 7,000 mile leg. Dubois stormed on across the finish line just over nine hours behind the winner, Bernard Stamm, on Bobst Group-Armor Lux.

Trailing in Pindar's wake for most of the second half of the leg, Dubois throttled up after a problem with her broken mainsail halyard slowed Richards down. From then on it was a head-to-head battle to the end, and both sailors looked worn out from their close combat right to the line.

The only woman in Around Alone, Richards said: "I am looking forward to the next leg. I can't wait to see what this boat does down south. But first I want something cold to drink and hot to eat."