DAY 17 - Innovation Explorer Experiences Sail Delamination
News - Tuesday, 01/17/2001, 3:48 AM GMT

Position	01/16/2001 3:48 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (Increasing lead over Team Adventure, avg speed 11.3 knots)
2nd	Team Adventure (66 nm from the leader. Tracking Club Med, avg speed 9.1 knots)
3rd	Innovation Explorer (173 nm from the leader. Aiming to pick up winds by staying east, avg speed 9.4 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (1525 nm from leader. Picked up speed in pursuit of leaders, avg speed 14.3 knots)
5th	PlayStation (2171 nm from the leader. Heading to Miami. Out of The Race, avg speed 9.9 knots)
6th	Team Legato (2458 nm from the leader. Yet to reach Doldrums, avg speed 8.9 knots)

At 15:00 GMT, today, a report received from crew member Elena Caputo Novak.

"The reacher was found to be delaminating yesterday morning when we heard the typical noise of paper flapping in the wind. By the time the sail was lowered and laid on the net it was evident the whole thing had problems," she said.

"The external mylar [glued to the fabric] was delaminating in various areas. After consultation with the sail maker the conclusion was the fabric was defective, but that doesn't help our situation while at sea.

"It's nerve racking that we are losing 48 hours to repair a sail while we should be catching up with the other boats. Skipper Loick Peyron is not thrilled with the situation."

She said: "We are using a lot of sail repair fabric and glue but we must keep some in case we have any damage on the other sails.

Club Med has picked up the new wind earlier than Team Adventure and Innovation Explorer and has been able to achieve speeds nearly twice that of the two close relatives.

Innovation Explorer's, Darius Drapella reported:'We’re fine, apart from the choppy weather, there’s a really strong trade wind, and the swell is three meters high'.

He added that they were making 21 knots with a second reef on the mainsail. Drapella also mentioned their equator crossing early in the morning. 'Of course we shared a bottle of champagne with Neptune, so we could have the king of oceans with us.'

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com

Innovation Explorer is in turqoise Club Med in yellow Team Adventure is green

PlayStation is in red Warta is orange Team Legato is blue

Warta Polpharma has followed the trace of Innovation Explorer since crossing the equator. She is swallowing up the miles at an average speed of 13.7 knots, and is now close to Maceiro (Brasil).

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com

Team Legato is currently 350 miles from the equator, following the trace of Club Med.

Team Legatos Tony Bullimore is 62 today!

PlayStation's Steve Fossett: 'In April or May we will attempt the Miami-New York record,' confirmed Steve Fossett, 'Then in June we will have a go at the Atlantic, first the Newport-Lizard Point record, then the record coming back the other way, probably in July.' That should cheer up the crew, who were bitterly disappointed to have retired from The Race so early.'

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