It was her most disappointing result of the race but Emma Richards arrived in New Zealand safely yesterday following her gruelling battle with the Southern Ocean on the third leg of the Around Alone Race.

The Hamble yachtswoman finished in sixth place but it was a courageous effort after her mainsail was ripped in two just a week into the 7,000nm leg from Cape Town to Tauranga.

Earlier, she had suffered damage to her autopilot, forcing her to handsteer for most of the leg.

As she crossed the finish line, the evidence of her struggles were evident. Just below the third reef on her mainsail, stretching from one side of thesail to the other, was a hand-sewn patch which had taken Emma many difficult hours to make in freezing conditions.

"All my repair held. I came in fully powered up for the last four miles, she told The Daily Sail website.

"The repair held. I've been protecting it quite well but

for the last 36 hours. I've been using it

a lot in the lighter winds and I used it going up the last

bit of the Tasman, but a lot of the stitching was stretching then."

Finishing the leg had brought a mixture of joy - at

having crossed the Southern Ocean on her own - and disappointment at recording a sixth place following a fourth and third in the first two legs.

"I'm just glad to have got here and I'm pleased with the mainsail repair. It was the biggest reception we've had yet in the race. There were loads of people lining all the docks and cheering as I came in - I got to spray most of them with champagne."

Her autopilot problems had caused Pindar to crash-gybe without warning, which in the Southern Ocean, where the loads are so strong, may have caused the weakness in the sail.

Richards came in two-and-a-half hours behind Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet, having match raced with him down the stormy New Zealand coast.