Alone at Sea

Dwarfed but not bowed, French Sailor Alain Colas is all alone sailing a 236-ft. four-masted schooner in the Singlehanded Transatlantic Race. Called Club Mediterrane after its principal sponsor, the vessel is the largest sailing yacht built since before World War I, and Colas is the only man ever to try to skipper such a leviathan without a crew across the treacherous Atlantic. He hopes to make the 3,000-mile passage from Plymouth, England, to Newport, R.I., in 18 days, beating his own record of 20 1/2 days when he won the last race in 1972 in a 70-ft. ketch trimaran. To control the boat that Colas, 32, built at a cost of nearly $1.5 million, he has the help of an array of the latest electronic aids, but his plans for using a satellite navigational system were nixed by the race's sponsors, the London Observer and the Royal Western Sail Club. Like Colas's ship, the quadrennial race has grown monstrously since Sir Francis Chichester beat out four competitors in his 39-ft. boat in 1960. In this year's race, 125 entries, including ten Americans and four women, set sail June 5 on the arduous course.

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