McBride almost out of time

Press, 21 March 1983, Page 6

McBride almost out of time

NZPA Washington Time is running out for Dick Mcßride, but reports say that the Royal Navy is preparing a big effort to float his schooner City of Dunedin off the East Falkland Island beach where she has been stranded for almost three weeks. Mcßride, aged 38,' the novice sailor of the fleet, is racing the staid 13m steel schooner he built with his own hands against some of the world’s fastest craft in a single-handed race round the world.

Seventeen boats left Newport, Rhode Island, in brilliant weather last August as the North American summer drew to its close. Now, seven months later, with two boats sunk, one wrecked, and others back in harbours as their equipment gave out, the race is down to 10.

This includes Mcßride, who has only a day or two to get off the pebble beach where the City of Dunedin is hard and fast. Once she is afloat, he needs to check the hull for any holes he may

have missed. He has already patched one, and repaired his damaged rudder. He then needs to sail as fast as he can to Rio de Janeiro. The fleet will leave there, with or without McBride, on April 10, in just three weeks, for the finishing line at Newport. One attempt to pull City of Dunedin off the beach failed. The towboat was not powerful enough. When a bigger boat tried to get close it was repelled by reefs and kelp. The latest indications are that it will need block and tackle to drag the schooner off the beach and out into open water.