Sailing: Krantz pays for over-enthusiasm

Competitive spirit spilled over to the wrong side of caution on the first night of the fifth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race when Gunnar Krantz's SEB, on give way port tack, sideswiped the overall leader John Kostecki's illbruck and punched a hole in the hull close to the stern. "We tried to duck them, and missed the duck," Krantz said.

The skipper of the German-flagged winner of three of the four legs so far continued racing as his crew made emergency repairs to a fist-sized hole in the Kevlar hull and re-rigged a ripped-out stanchion.

Krantz took a penalty for the over-enthusiasm by executing a pair of 360-degree turns – relatively light compared with what might be imposed by an unsympathetic jury.

Light and fickle weather was dictating affairs as the eight boats made their departure from Brazil on the 4,450 miles run to the finish in Miami. There had been some hope that illbruck might have a chink in her armour in terms of light airs performance and, sure enough, she was uncharacteristically, but only marginally, last during those opening 24 hours.

With the Doldrums ahead there is a long way to go and all is very tight at the front of the fleet, although Jez Fanstone in News Corp managed to move from last to first.

VOLVO OCEAN RACE: Leg 5; Positions, with miles to the finish: 1 News Corp (J Fanstone), 4,337nm; 2= Amer Sports One (G Dalton), Tyco (K Shoebridge) 4,351; 4=, Amer Sports Too (L McDonald), SEB (G Krantz) 4,353; 6= Assa Abloy (N McDonald), djuice (K Frostad) 4,354; 8 illbruck (J Kostecki) 4,355.