Sailing: Dalton makes slow progress

SLOWLY but safely the Whitbread fleet avoided any snarl- ups in Chesapeake Bay and set out into the Atlantic for the eighth-leg run to La Rochelle yesterday, writes Stuart Alexander from Annapolis, Maryland.

John Kostecki gave hometown supporters a boost as he kept George Collins' Baltimore-based Chessie racing in front, but only just. Grant Dalton recovered from a horror show start and capitalised on the performance edge which Merit Cup has in lighter, flat-water conditions, pushing up to within 200 yards of Chessie.

Also looking less than glamorous in front of a huge spectator fleet in Annapolis was Paul Cayard but he, too, recovered to pull EF Language up to third as the first seven were bunched over 2.3 miles, with Paul Standbridge in Dennis Connor's Toshiba next to last, four miles behind. The Netherlands' Roy Heiner brought up the tail, 6.6 miles astern.