Damage leaves Dalton trailing illbruck

Third place – and six points in the bank – were on offer for the only British skipper in the Volvo Ocean Race last night as Jez Fanstone took no risks with News Corp in gale force winds on the last 100 miles to the shelter of Table Mountain.

Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One finished second, beaten by the German crew illbruck in the race to Cape Town after losing some sail and suffering mast damage. The team now face a race against time to repair the boat in time for the next leg in a fortnight's time.

Fanstone should be followed 24 hours later by Kevin Shoebridge in Tyco and 24 after that by Roy Heiner in Assa Abloy. They, too, will be aiming to keep damage to a minimum as they head for an already curtailed stopover.

While the rest of the fleet makes its uncomfortable way to clean clothes, comfortable beds and favourite foods, the leg winner John Kostecki and the man he was made to work hard to beat, Dalton, were coping in different ways to the morning after the night before formal press conference.

Kostecki does not like them, Dalton revels in the opportunities for mischief. So, while the New Zealander was talking down the undoubted potential in an Ameri Sports One designed by German Frers Jnr – "I think it's OK, it's a good average boat, nothing special" – the American, whose illbruck is designed by Dalton's previous choice, Bruce Farr, was more considered. "They definitely are not slow. Their boat is capable of winning the race," no, he didn't want to say that, "or at least some legs."

Dalton knows he has a fast boat when the power is turned up and the course is downhill, but again wanted to play down his prospects for the next leg through the howling, icy winds of the Southern Ocean to Sydney. "The other boats are going to come out of here with all guns blazing because, right now, they are out there really hurting."

Kostecki, who said there would be crew changes for the next leg as they wanted to run a squad system, plus use some specialists over the total of nine legs, stuck to the line that good sail design, good tactics and good crew work would be the route forward.

Bouwe Bekking, Dalton's second watch leader and prime mover of the Amer Sports project while Dalton was still racing Club Med round the world at the beginning of this year, said they already had some ideas about plugging gaps in their sail inventory and pointed to the way in which Dalton was working so well with navigator Roger Nilson. The Kiwi is nothing if not decisive, the Swede thorough and inclusive.

There will be no crew changes for the next leg, said Dalton. But nor will the plays be conservative. This is a boat with new guns of its own to blaze.

VOLVO OCEAN RACE (First leg, Southampton to Cape Town, 7,350 nautical miles): 1 illbruck (J Kostecki) finished; 2 Amer Sports One (G Dalton) finished; 3 News Corporation (J Fanstone) 107 nautical miles to finish; 4 Tyco Racing (K Shoebridge) 334; 5 Assa Abloy (R Hiener) 553; 6 SEB Racing (G Krantz) 1141; 7 djuice (K Frostad) 1159; 8 Amer Sports Too (L McDonald) 1257.