Whitbread at a Glance

This is the seventh Whitbread race, which is sailed every four years from Southampton, England. Ten 64-foot Whitbread 60s with crews of 12 will start at 2 p.m. local time (6 a.m. PDT) today. The course measures 31,600 nautical miles, with stops at Cape Town, South Africa; Fremantle and Sydney, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Sao Sebastiao, Brazil; Fort Lauderdale and Baltimore, U.S., and La Rochelle, France, finishing at Southampton about May 24.