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Anyone who was in Auckland on 15 February 1986 will still remember the restart as being one of the highlights in New Zealand’s rich yachting tradition. More than 6,000 boats churned through the waters to send the fleet on their way and 300,000 spectators joined in the fun shoreside.

Three days later, the mast on NZI came crashing down, putting a dampener on that celebration and an end to Digby Taylor’s campaign. The problems of getting a replacement mast from England proved insurmountable and the 16 strong crew were forced to return to their day jobs.

No such calamities on UBS Switzerland who roared off towards Cape Horn and to South America beyond. Mar del Plata in Argentina had been withdrawn from the course, due to the fall out from the Falkands War and instead the fleet headed for Punta del Este in Uruguay, billed as a South American paradise.

The Roaring Forties proved to be not roaring at all, but the Southern Ocean gave them all a test, especially Atlantic Privateer which did an almighty broach as they surfed at around 20 knots. Even the spreaders disappeared underwater, the crew claimed afterwards, and Tracy Edwards struggled to hold things together in the galley. “The conditions were horrendous and I thought I was going to die. I’d be cooking and puking up into the sink at the same time,” she admitted in her autobiography Living Every Second.

Drum too was rampaging through the waters when she suddenly rolled twice and was knocked down on her side for around five minutes, which left the spinnaker shredded and a spinnaker bag, known as a turtle, wrapped round the propeller. Crewmember Micke Olsson, a trained diver, donned his wetsuit and diving gear for a dip in the freezing waters, but he was pulled under the stern of the boat, losing his facemask and mouthpiece. Eventually the turtle was cleared but in the process, Drum lost vital miles and time.

Race HQ’s radio link was buzzing with reports of damage caused by the strong winds, but these petered out completely as the Cape loomed into view. Unusually, it was surrounded by waters that could only be described as avuncular. The reason was the time of year. Normally the fleet would have arrived in late January, but the start of the 1985 race had been put back by a month and in March the landmark proved more like a tourist attraction than a sailor’s graveyard.

First round was Fehlmann, but it was the guys on Lion who hit the jackpot when they caught sight of Halley’s Comet making one of its rare appearances in the earth’s orbit. This was also the moment, between Cape Horn and Punta del Este, that the race really took off with skippers of UBS, Drum, Atlantic Privateer and Cote d’Or all fighting hard to be the first to Uruguay, the light headwinds adding extra spice to the action. In one seven hour period, the UBS crew completed 14 sail changes in a bid to keep up their speed, and this diligence paid dividends when the Swiss crew were first over the line, nine hours ahead of Drum and nine hours and 20 minutes before Atlantic Privateer. Behind the maxis, L’Esprit d’Equipe regained the overall handicap lead by a margin of nearly five hours.