DAY 25 - Team Adventure Will Continue With 4 less Crew
News - Wednesday, 01/24/2001, 7:58 AM GMT

Position	01/24/2001 7:58 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (Feeling Innovation Explorer pressuring, avg speed 19.0 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (893 nm from the leader, avg speed 20.0 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (2130 nm from the leader. Undergoing repairs, leaving Cape Town Thursday, will continue with 4 less crew, avg speed 0.0 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (3344 nm from leader. Bypassing Tristan da Cunha to stay ahead of Legato, avg speed 9.3 knots)
5th	Team Legato (4105 nm from the leader. Slight gains on Warta today, avg speed 10.4 knots)
6th	PlayStation (8375 nm from the leader. RETIRED, Has left Antigua for Miami, avg speed 12.1 knots)

Team Sizes
Club Med	team of 13
Team Adventure	started with 14, will continue with 10
Innovation Explorer	team of 12
Warta Polpharma	team of 9
Team Legato	team of 10
PlayStation	team of 13

Team Adventure's Jeffery Wargo(crew) and Mikael Lundh(crew) are not able to continue, but two additional crewmates, Rick Deppe(team cameraman and communications expert) and Rob Myles(rigger and foredeck) have decided to bail citing 'personal reasons'. Participation in such a race is a major personal commitment, mentally and emotionally taxing. Working with the same people for approximately 60 days, the solitude of the ocean, driving oneself, under intense stress, for so long is something that very few can commit to. Team Adventure will miss them.

10 team members will mean that watches will be lengthened, jibing and tacking may be somewhat slower with less hands on deck. However considering the team sizes of the other maxi-cats, it is not totally out of line.

Work is currently going on round-the-clock to repair the damaged main crossbeam, a ruptured internal bulkhead and a number of damaged half-frame bulkheads. Cam Lewis: "Yan Perfornis is done sanding and grinding. Midnight last night, the guys put a vacuum bag onto the core replacement on the faring".

The external damage on the fairing was to do with a collision with the water. There is an area under two square meters of core which has to be delaminated. he damage permitted some torqueing and twisting of the beam. Yan believes one impact damaged the bulkhead inside, and when the fairing hit a few waves, it was able to delaminate and break down the core. Some of the half ring frames were lifting off in the front.

Club Med was passing the Crozet Islands as she continues eastward in 30 knots of northwesterly wind travelling between a high to the north and a low to the southwith, with one reef and an asymmetric storm spinnaker. Next passing point estimated for Wednesday is the Kerguelens. Dalton: "Our strategy is to be a little careful, but at least go at the pace set by Innovation Explorer".

Dalton on his spin: "Compared to all the other sails on board, this one is quite different. It is a flying sail, not tight-luffed, more a conventional monohull-type design, a little fuller so as to keep set in the surfs. With this rig speeds are not spectacular but they are steady, around 23-25 knots on average and most of all, we feel safe, as the boat is also unloaded". Jacques Caraës: "the tramp is frequently under water. It is raining alot and we must be careful with all of our movements. The boat is travelling very quickly, shocks are violent and it seems very difficult to stop. Grant Dalton is planning at this moment a sea anchor, in the event they need to slow the boat down without changing the sail set and the boat balance. This would help reduce the burying of the bows into waves".

Innovation Explorer is following Club Med in surfing along the low pressure systems, but further south. Her strategy of passing below the Kerguelen Islands, enabled her to gain in three ways: she'll shorten her route, she should pick up more wind, and she'll be sailing in a significant east-going current. However she may have to go further south as the present system will soon pass her by and the wind she needs to keep up is to be found at a lower latitude, entailing harsher conditions for boat and crew. They have been gybing hard and have had to track way off the wind due to their lack of appropriate headsails, causing them to cover more distance than desireable.

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 still struggling in light East-south-east winds. They are going to have to struggle for another 250 miles yet to extract themselves from the high centred over Tristan da Cunha and descend down as far as 42° S to find the nicely established Westerlies. They are only two degrees north of the roaring forties.

Warta Polpharma has decided not to stop at Tristan da Cunha to send back images to Poland, for fear that Team Legato would catch them up. They will head south to pick up the Roaring Forties and attempt to open a demoralizing gap ahead of Team Legato.

Team Legato is becalmed, in variable light winds becoming west 5 knots. They are taking advantage of the opportunity to do routine maintenance, in preparation for heavier conditions.

From the NOW live tracker, www.now.com

PlayStation continues its path to Miami only 475 miles west of Palm Beach. Once she reaches she can officially retire.

[Print]    [Close] E-mail: Webmistress Copyright ©Xavier Innovations Ltd. All rights reserved