Sailors gamble with tropical storm

Sailors in the Volvo Ocean Race headed into the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday planning to flirt with the first tropical storm of the US hurricane season, a risk that could make or break their seventh-leg efforts. Tropical Storm Alberto brought an unusually early start to the hurricane season but it is no lightweight, with winds of up to 83.25 km/hr in its center. The six-strong fleet in the round-the-world race, led out of Miami on Sunday by narrow overall leaders Telefonica of Spain, intended to skirt the heart of the storm. But skippers still want to use some of its force to "catapult" their way through the early stages of the 3,590-nautical mile Atlantic crossing to Lisbon, Portugal. If their navigational strategy is awry and they get too close to the storm, the boats could end up literally in the eye of a hurricane. Jules Salter, who helped guide Abu Dhabi to victory in Saturday's Miami in-port race, is one who says the storm front could help slingshot his team through the early stages of the voyage to Lisbon. "In some ways it's quite good," he said. "It's giving us some downwind conditions so we're kind of cutting the corner and probably sailing a more direct route that we would have done if the storm wasn't there. "The closer we can get to it the better. It will give us a bit of a catapult out of the way." The epic round-the-world race is entering the most crucial phase of the nine-month, 39,000-nautical mile marathon journey through five continents, 10 countries and four oceans. Only 14 points separate the first four teams, and successive navigational errors in in-port races in Brazil, and on Saturday in Miami, have cut early pace-setter Telefonica's advantage to only seven points over second-place French challenger Groupama. The race is scheduled to finish in Galway, Ireland on July 7. Overall standings: 1 Telefonica (Spain) 165 points, 2 Groupama (France) 158, 3 Camper (Spain/New Zealand) 152, 4 Puma (United States) 151, 5 Abu Dhabi 74, 6 Team Sanya (China) 27.