Pigs on an even keel

Sailing

AS THE crews of the other 22 Champagne Mumm Admiral's Cup yachts loaded final stores and equipment in readiness for the days ahead at sea on the Royal Ocean-Racing Club's biennial Fastnet Race the sound of power sanders massaging a smooth finish heralded the completion of emergency keel modifications to two yachts.

The shore teams of Sansui Challenger and Pigs in Space had been working all night to modify their keels after dangerous cracks were discovered when the boats were hauled out of the water for routine polishing.

A hastily transmitted fax drawing arrived on Friday night from designer Bruce Farr's office in the United States and grinders and hammer drills were put to work. Stainless steel straps were bolted through the lead fins and both boats were relaunched just two hours before the race was due to begin.

"If there's any doubt about the repairs we won't take a chance," said Pigs' skipper Ken Read. "There have been enough cases of keels falling off that we don't need to fool out there with Mother Nature."

The prospect of tackling one of the world's most unpredictable and potentially dangerous ocean races - 600 miles around the Fastnet rock and back around the Scilly Isles and into Plymouth - in machines that had been falling apart is unnerving enough. For the Americans, however, there is the added pressure of leading the eight teams going into the series decider by a margin that will not endure if Pigs in Space fails to finish.

At the start of the Fastnet Race, the high-points scorer of the series with a 4.5 multiplier, the Americans led the Italians by 20.9 points or five Fastnet places.

Normally that would be a decent-enough cushion. But the capricious nature of the Fastnet Race, where rank outsiders have taken flyers all over the Irish Sea and arrived in Plymouth victorious, together with the fact that the crew of Pigs in Space will have other things on their minds as they leave the relative safety of the English Channel, may conspire to deny America the victory.

They will, at least, be thankful for a long-range weather forecast that predicts generally light airs that should not unduly stress Pigs in Space's lashed up keel. But they will also know that their rivals' best hope lies in a light-air lottery where even the fastest boats can be ensnared by calamitous calms.

For the British Group 4-sponsored team, which lies last of the eight three-boat teams, the only target is to scrape past Hong Kong and off the bottom of the table.

The CMAC yachts left the Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes at 5.30 last night, just 24 members of a fleet of 241 entries. At their head is a field of maxis that could threaten Nirvana's 1985 course record of two days and 12 hours if the predicted north-easterly wind holds up in strength. Behind is an armada of Corinthian adventurers for whom next Friday is a more realistic arrival time.