DAY 30 - Club Med breaks the Indian Ocean Record, Innovation Explorer Planning Stop for New Sail in the Event Gennaker Becomes Irrepairably Damaged
News - Monday, 01/29/2001, 4:21 AM GMT

Position	01/29/2001 4:21 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (Has reached the Great Australian Bight, suffering a 50-knot squall with rain and hail, avg speed 22.2 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (854 nm from the leader, has more gennaker damage, talk of a pitstop in New Zealand, avg speed 20.3 knots)
3rd	Warta Polpharma (3659 nm from leader. Sailing consistently, lost a little ground today, avg speed 16.2 knots)
4th	Team Adventure (3822 nm from the leader. Finally in the Roaring Forties, avg speed 22.5 knots)
5th	Team Legato (5372 nm from the leader. Soon to be in the Roaring Forties, avg speed 7.9 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

Dalton (Club Med): "We are still in the clutches of a good old Southern Ocean gale. The pattern is so typical. Big confused waves, squally, wind around 35 knots but over 40 in the squalls and peaking at 50 at times. Ice and sleet in the squalls, just cold and wet the rest of the time, although right now it is sunny".

Franck Proffit aboard Club Med: "we had two reefs in the main and our small 200 meter spinnaker up. We brought the spinnaker down and had nothing upfront. The squall brought a hailstorm along with it."

Club Med has broken the Indian Ocean Record - the route between the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and Cape Leuwin in Western Australia. The record, held until now by Olivier de Kersauzon¹s trimaran Sport Elec, taken on the occasion of his last successful Jules Verne Trophy attempt, stood at 8 days 23 hours and 17 minutes until this morning. Club Med has smashed it by taking just 7 days and 14 hours to do the same distance - about one day and nine hours less.

Innovation Explorer's patchwork gennaker's leech and luff junctions with the tabling seem to be breaking down. More repairs were required Sunday.

Innovation Explorer could consider stopping in Wellington, New Zealand for a new reacher/gennaker, made by Incidences in La Rochelle, France (Incidences kitted out Club Med, Innovation Explorer and Warta Polpharma), it looks like funding has been found. Surely Club Med is attentively watching, as Dalton has expressed a desire to stop in New Zealand.

However under The Race rules, stops are only permitted in the event of major damage. The question would be if the current sail situation is considered an emergency situation. Obtaining assistance would engender a 48 hr penalty. If a stop is made that is not considered an emergency situation, then a heavier penalty is possible. This means that Innovation Explorer will likely have to wait until major damage occurs, and Club Med, although having expressed a desire to stop, it not likely to do so.

Team Adventure plans to stay above the front coming in in the next 40 or so hours. They are doing 22.5 knots, and must feel relieved to be finally moving with speed.

Warta-Polpharma is currently working her way over the Agulhas Plateau to the west of the Prince Edward Islands in 15 knots of breeze. The sea bed here rises from 13,000 feet to 2,300 feet causing the formation of large and confused seas. Warta Polpharma and Team Adventure are steering toward the south of the Prince Edward Islands, where they will experience more wind, in the order of 20 knots.

Team Legato had another slow day today as they are not yet free of the variable, light northeasterly winds. They are heading southwesterly to skirt around the high pressure system, this direction causes them to have a negative VMG (velocity made good), i.e. heading away from where they want to go. Thankfully however it is not as painful as yesterday. Once they reach the Roaring Forties in 2 days, all will change but so much time has been lost.

The tenacity of this team and positive outlook is commendable, they have managed, during these quiet times to take the opportunity to enjoy their surroundings.

Tony Bullimore: "One crew member spotted some whales and called us up on deck. There were at least a dozen of them, if not more. Really big ones right next to the boat. It makes you feel humble to see these great creatures of the sea just continuing their route all day without stopping." They also saw dolphins on their port beam.

Map images courtesy of Virtual Spectator, click here to go to The Race site for a free download of the software.

Club Med in blue Innovation Explorer is in green Warta Polpharma is yellow

Team Adventure is in orange Team Legato is in brick-red PlayStation is in orange-red

Map images courtesy of Virtual Spectator, click here to go to The Race site for a free download of the software.

Club Med in blue Innovation Explorer is in green Warta Polpharma is yellow

Team Adventure is in orange Team Legato is in brick-red PlayStation is in orange-red

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