Around Alone 2002/3 is certain to witness some closely fought battles for the podium in Classes I & II. European might underpins Class I in the shape of veterans Marc Thiercelin & Thierry Dubois (FRA, Class I), with a twist of Swiss competition from Bernard Stamm (SWI, Class I) in his transatlantic record Record #sailingrecord -holding yacht ’Bobst Group-Armor Lux’. However, Italy is defending her victorious colours under Simone Bianchetti (ITA, Class I), the first Italian skipper to finish a non-stop, solo round the world yacht race. He is racing to win on the fast Lombard-designed Open 60 previously helmed by Catherine Chabaud, now ’Tiscali Global Challenge’. Challenging this European dominance are the all-American Open 60 ’Ocean Planet’, skippered by Bruce Schwab (USA, Class I), and two major boat campaigns from down under : Unai Basurko with Global Quest Yachting and Graham Dalton (NZ, Class I) with HSBC, the latter at the helm of his powerful, new Open 60 ’Hexagon’.

Class II has a strong North American contingent, with 6 out of the 10 skippers from the USA and Canada, all thirsting for victory on competitive Open 50’s and 40’s. Ex-Around Alone giant Brad Van Liew (USA, Class II) will be leading his fellow countrymen against formidable Eastern opposition from Viktor Yazykov (RUS, Class II) and Kojiro Shiraishi (JAP, Class II). Also, three yachts to watch, which were built for this kind of event in the last 4 years, but on their first attempt at Around Alone, are Bob Adam’s Open 40 ’Perseverance’ (USA, Class II), a sister-ship to 1998 entrant ’Wind of Change’, Tim Kent’s (USA, Class II) state-of-the-art Open 50 ’Everest Horizontal’, and Open 50 ’Great Circle’, now under John Dennis (CAN, Class II).

A third of the fleet are making a comeback in Around Alone, and include some heavyweight names such as Marc Thiercelin, Brad Van Liew and Viktor Yazykov. Although this prestigious event was the springboard for them to international renown the first time round, victory still escaped their grasp…

Two skippers, Gildas Iauch (FRA, Class I) & Kojiro Shiraishi, were both shore crew for winning BOC Challenge skippers, Philippe Jeantot and Yukoh Tada respectively. On the 20th anniversary, both are finally realising their life’s ambition to end up on the start line in their own boats.

The names have changed but the boats remain the same, as two of the top Open 50’s will be going head to head again, but under a different guise. Brad Van Liew is now campaigning for Class II victory in ’Mission America’, none other than the ex-’Magellan Alpha’ helmed by Mike Garside, against whom he waged but lost a relentless battle for 2^nd place on his own Open 50 ’Balance Bar’ in the 1998/9 Around Alone. In turn, Van Liew’s is up against his own ex-50 footer, now in the hands of Duncan Gladman (CAN, Class II) as ’Canada Challenge’.

Around Alone provides a unique and effective testing ground for innovation in yachting design & technology. Most eyes will be on the performance of the newest Open 60 on the circuit, Graham Dalton’s ’Hexagon’, sponsored by HSBC, which has been described by the Owen Clarke Design Group as "Kingfisher with the gloves off". Viktor Yazykov, will be launching another Owen Clarke design, an Open 50, for the race as well, and following from Viktor’s success during the last Around Alone in his Open 40 ’Wind of Change’, two more have been launched this year. Alan Paris (Bermuda, Class II) is already doing sea-trials on ’BTC Velocity’, the product of boat-winning Jutson Yacht Design, which boasts a unique trim-tab configuration for the keel, and Derek Hatfield (CAN, Class II) is competing in ’Spirit of Canada’, designed to be an all-round performer, incorporating all the top tried and tested performance features in European design for such a race.

Entry list

CLASS I - OPEN 60

Skipper LHT Nom du bateau Voile N° Pays
 Bernard Stamm 60’ Bobst Group Armor Lux 7 Sui
 Bruce Schwab 60’ Ocean Planet 5 USA
 Gildas Iauch 60’ Dyanamicdiabetic.com 23 Fra
 Graham Dalton 60’ Hexagon 8 NZL
 Unai Basurko de Miguel 60’ Global Quest Yachting Aus
 Marc Thiercelin 60’ TBC Fra
 Simone Bianchetti 60’ Tiscali Global Challenge 100 Ita
 Thierry Dubois 60’ Solidaires 50 Fra

CLASS II - OPEN 50 & 40

 Adam Lambert 50’ TBA Aus
 Alan Paris 40’ BTC Velocity 441 Ber
 Bob Adams 40’ Perserverance 461 USA
 Brad Van Liew 50’ Mission America 34 USA
 Derek Hatfield 40’ Spirit of Canada 84 Can
 Duncan Gladman 50’ Canada Challenge Can
 John Dennis 50’ Bold Statement 69 Can
 Kojiro Shiraishi 40’ Jap
 Tim Kent 50’ Everest Horizontal 512 USA
 Viktor Yazykov 50’ TBC 540 Rus

CLASS III - VENTURER

 George Stricker 60’ Tin Can 217 Virgin islands (USA)