SAILING: Neal McDonald's Assa Abloy continued to lead the Volvo Round the World Ocean Race fleet yesterday in the chase to Auckland.
SAILThe Swedish entry had a lead of over 50 nautical miles on Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One.
Last year, Dalton was MacDonald's skipper as the pair raced the mighty catamaran Club Med to success in "The Race", circumnavigating the globe in record time.
German race leader Illbruck, Australia's News Corp and Bermudan entry Tyco battled for third place, 120 miles behind.
Assa Abloy's American navigator Mark Rudiger was relieved to see his gamble to take a more northerly route paying off as the fleet was hit by winds gusting up to 38 knots.
The conditions made for extremely tough sailing, with every change in wind direction or speed requiring a different combination of sails.
If the wind keeps blowing, there are few remaining chances for the chasing pack to catch up.
"We started on jibs, went all the way through the reaching jib and spinnaker inventory to finish up on running spinnakers, only to go all the way back again to jibs," explained Team Tyco skipper Kevin Shoebridge.
