DAY 21 - Club Med Avoids 45 Knots of Wind and 20 Meter Seas
News - Saturday, 01/20/2001, 4:51 AM GMT

Position	01/20/2001 4:51 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (Heading NE to avoid harsh conditions, avg speed 20.1 knots)
2nd	Team Adventure (420 nm from the leader. Suffered beam damage, changed course and heading for Cape Town, South Africa, avg speed 15.2 knots)
3rd	Innovation Explorer (877 nm from the leader. Driving south, avg speed 16.6 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (2342 nm from leader. Through the high, now gaining speed, avg speed 13.4 knots)
5th	Team Legato (2872 nm from the leader. Closing slowly on Warta, avg speed 12.7 knots)
6th	PlayStation (5292 nm from the leader. RETIRED, estimated arrival in Miami 24 Jan, avg speed 23.1 knots)

Dalton is also making tactical adjustments, both long and short term, now he is rid of his closest rival. He is steering clear of the centre of the low where the winds are strong, taking less of a southerly line and pulling north away from the heaviest waves and winds. Later he will head back south again when the winds stop blowing in the north.

He intends to have enough of a lead to enable him to make a stop in the Cook Straits, New Zealand, and use a 48-hour mandatory penalty to have a pit stop if he feels it is needed.

Dalton felt he was starting to reap the rewards for the extensive testing program he undertook last year, in contrast to the hurried and short-term nature of the other Ollier designed cats.

He said: "We strengthened our beams and bows considerably over the summer. We have added a lot of extra weight to the boat as a result. This has affected our speed in medium conditions, but I always knew this would be a war of attrition and these boats would have to survive the south to win The Race."

Club Med has experienced low temperatures down to -5C/23F and Club Med had to zigzag past several small icebergs.

Team Adventure: The wave collision damaged a bulkhead in the crossbeam and about two square meters/21.53 sq ft of the hull fairing, which is part of the structure for taking the torsional loads. The bulkhead will need to be rebonded and some of the core material replaced, before the fairing is replaced.

Yann Penfornis, of Gilles Ollier Design will meet them in Cape Town.

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: "The wind has been back since yesterday afternoon," said Loïck Peyron. "We have 30 knots of wind at the moment and we've all sails set at the moment, full main, big gennaker and staysail".

Innovation Esplorer is heading into an area where a current called the Agulhas Current, which flows southwest, clashes with the prevailing southeasterly swell. The resulting confused seas are very difficult to negotiate.

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com

Warta Polpharma are putting some easting in their southerly route for the first time as she curves to the north around the South Atlantic High.

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com

Team Legato has picked up the south-east trades and is following the track of the others.

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