DAY 24 - Will Team Adventure Continue With 2 less Crew?
News - Tuesday, 01/23/2001, 5:20 AM GMT

Position	01/23/2001 5:20 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (Stretching lead in Indian Ocean, avg speed 23.3 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (877 nm from the leader. Gained on Club Med by 50 miles in 24 hours, avg speed 20.1 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (1683 nm from the leader. Undergoing repairs in Cape Town, has to make decision to continue with 2 less crew or not, avg speed 0.0 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (3069 nm from leader. Changed from heading east to due south, has lost speed, avg speed 9.2 knots)
5th	Team Legato (3863 nm from the leader. Loosig ground in St. Helena's high, avg speed 9.3 knots)
6th	PlayStation (7637 nm from the leader. RETIRED, Has left Antigua for Miami, avg speed 18.3 knots)

Club Med has passed to the north (windward) of South Africa's Prince Edward Islands (Antarctic islands well to the south of Madagascar). They will next pass to the north of the Crozet Islands, 395 miles ahead, before the Kerguelens, 1100 miles distant.

Team Adventure has arrived in Cape Town. The three injured crew have been taken to hospital.

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. Lundh has a strained tendon in his neck and will wear a neck brace while he convalesces.

Jeffrey Wargo suffered a bruised pelvis, when he was thrown forward in the galley. Wargo suffered a compression fracture of his L1 vertebrae. He must restrict his physical movements for the next two or three weeks but is expected to fully recover after two or three months.

Philippe Peche, split the inside of his mouth when he swallowed his flashlight on the impact, but he is okay.

Results of medical assessment at Claremont Hospital in Cape Town are that Jeffery Wargo and Mikael Lundh will not be able to return to the boat due to the strenuous physical challenge of sailing on the 110-foot catamaran.

Members of the Cape Town Sea Rescue Team, which met the boat outside Cape Town, initially treated both men. They were then examined by Dr Peter Sandell after the boat docked in the inner harbor.

Because the rules of The Race permit no crew substitutions, skipper Cam Lewis must now decide whether to continue racing with 12 crew instead of 14, once repairs have been completed.

Repairs to Team Adventure have begun.

Yann Penfornis (lieutenant to Gilles Ollier who designed the boat and is the boss of Multiplast, the builder) had hardly stepped off the flight from Paris before he slipped on his overalls and slid inside the damaged main beam. His diagnosis was a confirmation of the extent of the damage. A work plan for the replacement of the damaged bulkheads and the reinforcing of the delaminated fairing has been drawn up for immediate application.

In warm sunshine, the workers from two South African yards specialising in composite work will work in shifts round the clock in order to repair the damage as quickly as possible. They have already dried out the boat. A large quantity of water has soaked in where the carbon has delaminated.The grinders have started into action while the crew are working at reinforcing safety on board the yacht. It is estimated two to three days of work.

Cam Lewis: "If the crew thinks it’s safe to continue and if we get the blessing of the design team and the builders, it’s my hope we’ll continue".

Innovation Explorer came perilously close to disaster at 45 degrees south when they skimmed past an iceberg in visibility of just 250 metres. Crewman Roger Nilson spotted it just in time, enabling helmsman Jean-Baptiste Saliou to turn hard to port as Peyron himself and two other crew sheeted the sails hard in.

Innovation Explorer, having headed south, is trying to stay in a wind band of 30 to 40 knots, so they can effectively use the solent jib as a heavy air reaching and running sail. The idea is to conserve the gennaker. As they don't have running sails, they are forced to tack downwind to get the headsail to draw.

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 is now heading south to pick up stronger winds.

Warta Polpharma is having communication problems that must be addressed, according to the race rules. They will put into port for repairs. At 12:00 GMT, Dariusz Drapella reported difficulties transmitting material from the boat in accordance with The Race rules and contracts.

The Polish catamaran will pull into the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha. Dariusz: "We came to the conclusion to support Polish TV, the best solution would be to land the footage at Tristan da Cunha, which is only 300 nautical miles (nm) away from us. This would be the perfect place to send this stuff back to Europe."

Drapella also indicated they would also stop in the Cook Straits, New Zealand, to undertake repairs to their transmission system, before attempting the passage to Cape Horn and beyond. Warta Polpharma gave up on its easterly route at 23:00 GMT on Sunday, turning south to pick up stronger winds. Warta is 32 degrees south, picking up wind speed of seven knots.

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com Team Legato has made no course change, continuing on a plumb line south (183 degrees) and averaging 10 knots.

Team Legato is picking its way through a series of high pressure systems traversing west-east across the South Atlantic. They are being affected by the St. Helena high, as can be seen by her lower speed of 9.7 knots.

"We have chosen a southerly course 270 miles to the east of the Polish boat to cut the corner out of the Atlantic. Our aim is to jump on the top of one of these revolving high pressure systems and let it slingshot us down into the Southern Ocean." Owen explained.

Team Legato has made no course change, continuing south (183 degrees) and averaging 10 knots.

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com

PlayStation has been in Antigua for the past 13 hours. They will depart later today for Miami.

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