Sailing: Fischer's icy experience

Chessie Racing sailed into Fremantle yesterday "disappointed" with her sixth place in the second leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race.

Mark Fischer's boat had been second in the nine-strong fleet at one point and he blamed the drop in performance on a collision with "something very large, but not hard".

Fischer, a Whitbread novice, was full of respect after his first trip through the challenging Southern Ocean. "The ocean is bigger and better than you will ever be," he said. "It was pretty exciting stuff. It was so cold it makes your teeth hurt."

Chessie will be seventh overall after today's arrival of Grant Dalton in Merit Cup. That will leave just Christine Guillou and the all-woman crew of EF Education, and the Dutch entry, Brunel Sunergy, still to complete the 4,600-mile leg from Cape Town.

WHITBREAD ROUND THE WORLD RACE (second leg, 4,600 miles, Cape Town to Fremantle): Finished:1 Swedish Match (Swe) G Krantz 15 days 03hr 45min 03sec; 2 Innovation Kvaerner (Nor) K Frostad 15:22:02:35; 3 Toshiba (US) P Standbridge 16:05:27:12; 4 Silk Cut (GB) L Smith 16:15:05:09; 5 EF Language (Swe) P Cayard 16:20:07:25. 6 Chessie Racing (US) M Fischer 17:11:51:47. Still to finish: 7 Merit Cup (Monaco) G Dalton 191 miles to go; 8 EF Education (Swe) C Guillou 284; 9 Brunel Sunergy (Neth) H Bouscholte 364. Standings: 1 Innovation Kvaerner 207; 2 EF Language 197; 3 Silk Cut 168; 4 Swedish Match 161; 5 Toshiba