Sailing: Hobart fears force boats to stay away

What else would you do on Boxing Day, says the 74-year old Syd Fischer, except take off on your 33rd Sydney to Hobart Race. The America's Cup veteran will be aboard his 50-footer, Ragamuffin, hoping he can secure a win on handicap at his fifth attempt in this yacht over the sometimes treacherous 630-mile course.

Not all of his compatriots agree and the domestic entry is down a lot this year. The main reasons seem to be that there are tighter minimum age and competency rules for crews and some would-be competitors have been persuaded by their families and loved ones not to take the risk. Memories are still vivid of the 1998 race when a storm hit the fleet in the Bass Strait and six people, including Glyn Charles, the British Olympic sailor, lost their lives.

For the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, Hobart is just a staging post, the opening stage of their 2,050 mile third leg to Auckland. About all they will have time for in Tasmania is for some microphones to be jammed into their faces during a maximum three-and-a-half hour pit stop at the dock. After that they have to motor miles down the River Derwent to restart. It is not something all of them want to do and there are some strange rules.

Whereas in motor racing a pit stop allows the mechanics to rush in and make repairs, the Volvo crews must put themselves in a state of suspension for those three hours. If there are repairs to be done they must be agreed with the race committee and completed at anchor after they restart, probably on the Derwent.

The boats cannot change any crew, or bring in new sails. They can be offered medical assistance or repairs to equipment supplied by the organisers, like telecoms. But the crew cannot even leave the boat unless it is for an interview and any hot food or drinks will only be supplied by the race committee.

For many this is a time to break out of some poor results, for at least one it is time to consolidate. And, for the Kiwis scattered throughout the fleet, a leg which always had special significance has been given heightened importance as they sail into a home port still grieving over the murder by river pirates in Brazil of the former round-the-world racer, Sir Peter Blake.

One of those who helped carry the coffin at his funeral in Emsworth is Kevin Shoebridge, skipper of Tyco. "After the disappointment of having to pull out of the last leg with a broken rudder this is obviously a big leg for us," he said. "We need to have a blinder," he said, adding that a new design of rudder had been made in time, then."

He also voiced the worries of many about the forecast of a heavy upwind thrash to Hobart. "It creates a situation where the fleet could get split quite heavily and there could be damage, a lot of it."

The wounded include Grant Dalton, skipper of third overall Amer Sports One, who will be wearing a body brace to protect rib and back injuries, and Ross Field, relying on pain killers to "tough it out" as navigator of second-placed News Corp. The overall leader, John Kostecki of illbruck adds: "We experienced difficulties last year and hope we learned from our mistakes."

While the focus for the Australians ends in Tasmania and the hope of breaking the record of 1 day 19hr 48 min 02 sec set by the Whitbread 60 Nokia in 1999, the Volvo racers have to look at the whole distance of just over 2,000 miles to Auckland. It is the finishing order there which decides the points. Looking for a major improvement is Britain's Neal McDonald, the skipper of Assa Abloy, a continuing improvement Gunnar Krantz, of SEB, and Knut Frostad, of djuice, and a return to improvement, Dalton.

The News Corp skipper, Jez Fanstone, has brought in America's Cup navigator Peter Isler. Richard Dodson gives up his Christmas break from training with One World to lend a hand to Shoebridge.