In this Issue:
FILA-Atlantic Record Attempt
Whitbread Leg 6-All Finished
Snipe-Winter Regattas
Star Western Hemisphere's-In Progress
Royal Sun Alliance- Nearing Chile

FILA-West to East Atlantic Record Attempt
    FILA, a new Open 60 built for the upcoming Around Alone race, is currently on schedule to break the west to east record for crossing the Atlantic ocean for monohull’s. The current record of 11 D 13 H 22 M 5 S is held by Nicorette .

    After 5 days of sailing, FILA is 150 miles ahead of the record pace. In these 5 days FILA has sailed 1,636 miles at an average speed of 13.6 knots.

    To keep up with the FILA record attempt visit the official website of FILA skipper Giovanni Soldini: http://www.giovanni.soldini.it/ The site is available in both Italian and English.

Whitbread Leg 6- All Finished
    Leg 6 was an extremely quick and safe leg.  Britain’s Silk Cut came back from a busted mast in the Southern Ocean to win this leg. The key to her win was her approach to the turning mark at the island of Barbuda. She was farther to the east and
when the wind headed her and competitor EF Language she was able to sail down to the mark with speed. Meanwhile EF Language was headed in the increasing
breeze and had to claw up more slowly to the mark. The 3rd podium position went to Swedish Match.

    There were some slight changes in the overall points standings. Still 1st is EF Language(2nd leg 6) with 608 points. 2nd is Swedish Match (3rd leg 6) with 493 points. 3rd is Merit Cup (5th leg 6) with 477, and 4th is Chessie Racing (6th Leg 6) with 454. By a slim margin Innovation Kvaerner is 5th with 449 points. These are the boats with a true chance to take an overall podium finish.

    The fleet will now layover in Ft. Lauderdale until starting Leg 7 on April 19th. Leg 7 takes the fleet north to Baltimore.

    To keep up with developments visit the popular Whitbread site: http://www.whitbread.org

Snipe- Don Q Rum Keg Regatta
    The 2nd of the Snipe winter regattas is in the books. The Don Q Rum keg regatta was sailed in Miami FLA.

    1st was George Szabo with a line of: 2-3-1-1-3 for 9.5 points. 2nd was Jimmie Lowe who finished with 23 points sailing to 5-2-11-3-2 finishes. In 3rd place was Hal Gilreath who netted 4-8-15-2-1 finishes for 29.75 points.

    The next Snipe regatta is April 2nd for the Bacardi Trophy in Nassau Bahamas.

    To follow these regattas visit: http://www.snipe.org

Star- Western Hemisphere championships.
    Currently Nassau Bahamas is home to the Star class Western Hemisphere championships.

    Day 1 saw Bacardi Cup champion Marc Reynolds get away fast with finishes of 2-1. John MacCausland also won a race on day 1, and added a 3rd to that to stand in 2nd place.

    Day 2 Reynolds continued his good sailing with a 1st and a 3rd. MacCausland stayed strong with a 2nd in race 3. Reynolds won the only race sailed on Tuesday, with McCasualnd 2nd again. So, after 5 races Reynolds leads the regatta with
5 points. MacCausland is in 2nd with 6 points. 3rd is Eric Doyle with 13 points. During Tuesday's race Doyle broke his rig. However, he has gotten another mast and will finish the regatta.

    Wednesday will see the conclusion of the regatta. To see the final results visit: http://sailing.org/regattas/98starwh/default.html

Royal&Sun Alliance- Nearing Chile
    Royal & Sun Alliance has sailed from the Southern Ocean to off the coast of Chile. Here they were met by the Chilean tug Rum Allipen.

    They will be towed 280 miles to Puerto Montt, Chile. Estimated arrival in Puerto Montt is this afternoon.

    As the boat and crew near land cleaning of boat and persons has begun. Skipper Tracy Edward describes it this way: "Sam was the first to brave the bucket shower yesterday. It was a strange sight, someone willingly pouring a bucket of ice cold sea water over their head in air temperatures of 10 degrees; complete madness."

Visit www.rsachallenge.com for more information