DAY 20 - Team Adventure in Trouble!
News - Friday, 01/19/2001, 4:17 AM GMT

Position	01/19/2001 4:17 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (Leading The Race through the Southern Ocean, avg speed 21.5 knots)
2nd	Team Adventure (229 nm from the leader. Suffered beam damage, changed course and heading for Cape Town, South Africa, avg speed 18.9 knots)
3rd	Innovation Explorer (881 nm from the leader. Enjoying a better ride than past few days, avg speed 21.0 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (2094 nm from leader. Slow progress through St Helena High, avg speed 13.4 knots)
5th	Team Legato (2954 nm from the leader. Sluggish progress out of doldrums, avg speed 12.7 knots)
6th	PlayStation (4548 nm from the leader. RETIRED, estimated arrival in Miami 24 Jan, avg speed 23.1 knots)

Late on Thursday night, Team Adventure suffered structural damage to her front beam when she plowed into a wave 1,100 nautical miles southwest of Cape Town, South Africa.

The major part of the damage has been confirmed by the boat as the fairing (at the forward starboard side of the main beam) delaminating. This area also suffered some outer skin and core damage. The good news is that the damage is not race ending.

Skipper Cam Lewis, after he had made an assessment of the damage, immediately decided to change course (from 75 degrees to 48 degrees) and head for Cape Town, they are currently three days away, making 15 knots under reduced sail. Experts from Multiplast, the boat's builders, are on their way to Cape Town. Team Adventure will accept a 48 hour penalty for receiving assistance, but is commited to get back into the race afterwards.

"We are concerned by this setback," Lewis reported to his shore headquarters in the USA. "But we are determined to press on and get back in The Race."

Two crewmembers were injured - Mikael Lundh was injured in a fall while crossing the trampoline. He suffered a sprained neck and is wearing a neck brace as a precaution. Jeffrey Wargo suffered a bruised pelvis, when he was thrown forward in the galley. Both are now reported as resting comfortably in their bunks.

The weather is cooling now for the two forefront leaders. 13 icebergs were seen in less than 2 hours, the first ones being seen during the afternoon. Club Med is under medium gennaker and full mainsail. They managed to not be hurt too much by the high that they had plowed into the back of Thursday, they are on the edge of the low pressure system and are profiting from strong winds coming from the north west. They are heading for south of Cape of Good Hope.

Club Med's Jacques Caraës expressed the first impressions of the cold "It is cold, but that is okay! Since this morning, it has been beautiful. The boat is cruising between 25 and 30 knots in 24 to 34 knots of breeze. We jibed this morning to a little more north. We are preparing for a low pressure system tonight that will generate winds of 40 to 45 knots".

On the safety/survival side: the team is very conscious about allowing the boat to pound on the wave crests and crossing the tramp carefully.

Jacques Caraës (Club Med) : "The boat slammed into a wave really hard tonight, it is pretty impressive, dangerous for the team and bad for the boat parts that are under great tension. When the boat at full speed slams the bows into a wave, it is like slamming on the hand brakes. The speed can drop radically from 30 to 10 knots and the crew that is not attached can become projectiles".

Dalton said: "A big wave came up and the pressure under the stacel literally just ripped the trampoline apart, and there’s about three guys up there at the moment trying to repair it. It's easy to repair, it just takes a bit of time and is a bit of a pain". This tramp damage is right infront of the beam, caused by the water pressure.

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

Innovation Explorer is now moving again as they are now on board the expressway of wind known as the Roaring Forties.

Warta Polpharma was heading west of the route taken by Innovation Explorer, but is now heading south east rather than south west, in order to take advantage of an incoming low-pressure system arriving from Argentina.

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com

Team Legato has crossed the Equator and is steaming south at 15 knots, aiming to pick up the southern trades.

Bullimore said: "We’re going along quite nicely at the moment, we’re doing about 11 knots. We got through the equator last night. Then the wind picked up a little bit and we’ve been going in a dead straight line ever since".

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