Sailing: MacArthur determined to keep Golding at bay

Ellen MacArthur has manufactured a lead of just over 65 miles in Kingfisher as she tries to hold off Mike Golding, in Ecover, for the final approach to the island of Guadeloupe, still 493 miles away, in the Route du Rhum Solo Transatlantic Race.

Both skippers were pushing their boats to the limit yesterday – sailing with gennakers and full mainsail. Exhaustion is the main challenge now after a week long mid-Atlantic match race, that started at the exit of the punishing storm conditions of the first few days. Sailing at this pace would be a challenge for a crew of 12, but alone – apart from the autopilot – it is extreme to say the least.

"For the moment, everything is OK,' MacArthur said yesterday. "We are sailing under gennaker and full mainsail. We are not as fast as Mike but it's OK. I've got 18-20 knots of wind, quite stable and tonight we've got a full moon but we can't see it very well because there are a lot of clouds. Right now I'm pretty stressed trying to stay in front of Mike.

"I've got a little problem onboard. One of my autopilots is not working any more. I've got another one but it's not so good," she added. "It will be difficult at the end for sure so I just want to focus on that."

ROUTE DU RHUM SOLO TRANSATLANTIC RACE (St Malo, Fr, to Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe) Leading positions: Monohull 60ft: 1 E MacArthur (Kingfisher) 493.7 miles to finish; 2 M Golding (Ecover) + 65.7 miles; 3 J Seeten (Arcelor-Dunkerque) + 587.3 miles; 4 Roland Jourdain (Sill) + 674.8 miles.