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BT GLOBAL CHALLENGE - RACE RESTARTS FROM CAPE TOWN THIS WEEKEND Southampton (UK), Saturday May 3rd 1997 Excitement is building in Cape Town (South Africa) today as the countdown to the restart of the world's toughest yacht race - the BT Global Challenge - starts in earnest. With just over 24 hours left to the race restart tomorrow, Sunday May 4th, the 182 amateur sailors and 14 professional skippers are working flat out to get their identical, 67 foot steel yachts ready to do battle. The next leg of the race (the fifth and penultimate leg) will take the fourteen competing yachts on a 7,000 mile journey from Cape Town to Boston, with the fleet expected to arrive in the US in mid- June after a six week journey. So far the yachts have raced from Southampton (UK) to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and then on to Wellington (New Zealand) and Sydney (Australia), arriving in Cape Town at the end of the fourth leg in the first week of April. The current race leader is yacht Group 4, but only twenty-two hours lie between her and second-placed Toshiba Wave Warrior. The BT Global Challenge fleet has been on stopover in Cape Town's Victoria and Alfred Waterfront for three weeks, during which time the skippers and crew members have been busy visiting local vineyards and other sites of interest, taking corporate guests out for sailing days, and working on the yachts, getting them ready for the next stage. The race from Sydney to Cape Town was one of the hardest legs, and six yachts suffered severe knockdowns on their way to South Africa, including one - Pause to Remember - who lost her boom. The yachts have now sailed about 20,000 miles since leaving the UK last September, and they have all undergone a comprehensive maintenance and repair programme in Cape Town to ensure that they are "ship shape" for the race to Boston. The race will start again on Sunday May 4th. A short Blessing of the Waves ceremony will be conducted on the dockside at 10.30 am local time on Sunday morning by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the race will be officially started at 1.30 pm local time by Minister Jay Naidoo from the South African Ministry of Post, Telecommunications and Broadcasting. Those wishing to follow the progress of the race can do so via the BT Global Challenge web site at http://www.btchallenge.com For updated information on the BT Global Challenge : Internet site : http//www.btchallenge.com Fax database : 0990 321123 (+44 990 321123 from outside UK) Recorded telephone information line : 0891 505550 (UK only) Public enquiry bureau : 01703 212124 (+44 1703 212124 from outside UK) Ceefax page 388 (UK only) |
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Copyright British Telecommunications plc 1996.
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