Sailing: Richards sets a lonely course for MacArthur territory

After this city ended its week of commemoration with a parade of sail yesterday, an elite fleet of 13 will set off today on the Around Alone race round the world. Being singlehanded racers, they are all strong characters, but they are all very different people.

The forecast is for a tough opening 24 hours as the fleet tackle the first of the five legs, a 2,930-mile affair which brings the event to England for the first time. Not surprisingly, the race's new organisation, helmed by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, has chosen Torbay, in his home county of Devon, as the initial target.

In a prologue, which took the fleet from their gathering point of Newport, Rhode Island, to Pier 86, within walking distance of Times Square, most of the seven 60-footers in Class One were in the lead at one point or another. The eventual winner was Italy's Simeone Bianchetti in Tiscali. He has the unenviable task of defending his countryman Giovanni Soldini's hold on the title he won four years ago. He has a 12th place in the last Vendée Globe non-stop race to his credit but, more intriguingly, his CV also includes a term not just in the Italian Navy but also the French Foreign Legion – and he has crossed the Sahara in a sand yacht.

Another man of contrasts is New Zealander Graham Dalton, the elder brother of the seven-times round the world racer Grant. While the younger Dalton frets every inch of the way while he is racing and has an unquenchable thirst to win, Graham is relaxed about incurring a 60-hour first-leg penalty for late arrival and qualifying. His new Merfyn Owen-designed Hexagon is thought to be fast, but he says he needs no certificates or trophies to deliver his personal satisfaction. He has recovered from a dismasting, has major backing from HSBC, and is determined to focus on an educational programme aimed at schoolchildren around the world.

Three others, including Bruce Schwab's innovative entry from the United States and a Canadian Mountie, Derek Hatfield, have also joined the programme in a gesture typical of an event, which, in its 20 years, has always mixed a feel of club with hard racing. The third is Britain's Emma Richards, who has taken over Josh Hall's old boat, now renamed Pindar, and follows in the footsteps of Isabelle Autissier in this race and Ellen MacArthur in the Vendee Globe.

MacArthur breathed small sigh of relief last week when she heard a new mast can be built for her 110-foot catamaran in time to challenge for the round the world record and the Jules Verne trophy early next year.

Hall is confident that Pindar is competitive, and further modifications will be made when it arrives back in the UK. But Richards is all too aware of the task ahead. "My question is how competitive I will be," she says. "I look forward to finding out where I stand in a very experienced fleet when I have been sailing this boat for just five weeks. I am still learning." MacArthur would understand that.