As in the previous races the weather at the start was awful and once the fleet of 47 boats had negotiated the many excited support boats within the Solent and entered the serious seas off the Needles the fleet knew they were in for a tough leg. Before reaching the Solent Fabio Buzzi retired with damaged drives and the infamous Lyme Bay between Portland Bill and Torquay took out several more including Wettpunkt and also the German owned and driven Blue Marlin which actually sank in Lyme Bay in 50 metres of water. All crew however were rescued and returned to land safe. The leg to Plymouth was won by a British crew Silverline (owned and driven by famous offshore racer Drew Langdon and Miles Jennings) with the Norwegians "Lionhead" second and the surprise of the day the Greek boat Blue FPT third. The 2nd leg next day had to be cancelled because of huge seas in the Bristol Channel so the Fleet made its way by road to Milford Haven in South Wales to be ready for their run to Northern Ireland the following day.