DAY 32 - Will Innovation Explorer Stop in Wellington for a new Daggerboard?
News - Wednesday, 01/31/2001, 5:50 AM GMT

Position	01/31/2001 5:50 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (Expects to reach Cook Strait on Friday, avg speed 22.0 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (748 nm from the leader, daggerboard damage adds to reasons for stopover, made up over 100 nm on Club Med, avg speed 23.9 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (4037 nm from leader. Heading east hoping to tap into passing depression, went north to avoid force 9 depression, avg speed 12.5 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (4398 nm from the leader. Went way north to avoid major storm - force 9 depression, avg speed 6.9 knots)
5th	Team Legato (5285 nm from the leader. Making excellent ground in the Roaring Forties, avg speed 18.9 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

Club Med had been sailing in west-southwesterly winds, but the wind has just shifted northwest at 30 knots. Club Med's dive to 50S was precipitated by the development of a high pressure under Australia that may come across to block Dalton’s path and envelope his boat in light airs just a few miles from the New Zealand coast. Club Med will make a mandatory passage through Cook Strait where they will pass between New Zealand's North and South Islands, led by a flotilla.

Dalton: "We know the high is clearing up a bit for us, moving away to the north, but we see the gap could come down to around 100-200 [nautical] miles".

"I think we should reach the Cook Straits by next Friday," said co-skipper Franck Proffit.

Dalton: "We've got two reefs in the main and the storm kite up at the moment, which we've actually had on for the past couple of days. Over the past 24 hours we've seen the strongest winds since the start of The Race. We've regularly seen over 50 knots," he added. "Carrying a spinnaker in over 50 knots is interesting stuff! There's just way too much seaway to get the boat up to any major record breaking speeds in that stuff."

Although Innovation Explorer trailed Club Med by 800 miles, that deficit was less than the 861 miles it faced this morning in a windless patch. "Now we're off again even better than before and we've 30 to 35 knots of wind from the Nor'west," said Peyron. "But we're not in excellent conditions, because the sea is shaking us up rather a lot, and even if we had more wind, it wouldn't mean we could go any faster. We're on an easterly heading, but on the other hand Club Med is on starboard tack and can't point a direct route."

"We have two reefs in the main and the staysail at the moment. Yesterday evening we had to rig the storm jib because we started to go over 40 knots. It wasn't very reasonable," said Vincent. "We had about 36 knots of wind, we filled the aft ballast [tanks] and the boat was holding well but at 40 knots it's not easy! We were four on watch, three on deck and one going back and forth from the cockpit to the chart table and the galley and sort of controlling everything."

Innovation Explorer's Elena Caputo on the broken daggerboard: "It was at the end of my watch, it was two o'clock in the morning when we heard a loud bang," explained crewmember Elena Caputo. "Then there was a lot of noise inside the hull and finally there was another shock at the rudder. We realized that we had just lost half the daggerboard! Just after that we lost the second life raft hatch [a lid that closes the life raft compartment on the main beam] and half an hour later it was our companionway cuddy [canopy over the entrance to the hull] that broke. Finally, our heater gave up the ghost because water got in it".

One of Innovation Explorer's daggerboards had snapped in half, crashing into the hull and colliding with one of the rudders after it had snapped off.

Skip Novak on Innovation Explorer: "And then this morning, we broke our casket on the leeward side. So, we now understand better what Grant [Dalton] is going through there [as Club Med also broke a casket]. We’re starting to smash into waves with the main beam and the aft beam, and we’ve broken the plexiglass canopy. You can see how it happens, and obviously we want to stay away from the 50-knot winds if we can. Oh, we’ve also lost the other bomb door, and we don’t have the top door unlocked as we’ve noticed the air compresses, but other than that, we haven’t had any waves inside there yet."

There is still no decision on whether to stop or not in Wellington, New Zealand for a replacement daggerboard and new gennaker. Surely it hurts being so close to Club Med when they are gaining steadily.

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

Team Adventure is pushing hard: Watch captain Jacques Vincent said the crew had to change the storm jib because they were going more than 40 knots boat speed.

Cam Lewis: "The next 24 hours looks tough, with a tricky high pressure system to negotiate. We will have light winds, head winds and possibly some tacks to the south.

He said: "It's going pretty good, on a starboard tack. It's southeast around 18-20 knots, expecting a shift to the north east shortly. This high pressure is between two lows.

"Jean-Yves [Bernot] briefed us that the wind is on a south-southeast direction. As the high pressures collide, the wind will switch northeast. This will allow us to get on a more suitable course and let us get south and east to New Zealand.

"The front that is coming up behind... hopefully we can get 20-25 knots out of it. Everything’s going very well. There are no problems at all. We’re just trying to do our best."

Team Adventure is north of the Crozet Islands and Warta-Polpharma is not far off the Prince Edward Islands.

Warta Polpharma went way north today, 300 miles! Drapella gave his reasons for heading north:

1. they wanted to be closer to Merit Cup, The Race safety boat, to pick up spare parts for the satellite antenna;
2. His second reason was to "save our lady" from unnecessary wear and tear in storm weather,
3. and finally, Warta was "heading for the railway station - a cold front, which we would like to use to sail 800 [nautical] miles eastwards".

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

Team Legato, with speeds of on average 20 knots, is making excellent ground in the Indian Ocean within the northwesterly wind of the Roaring Forties. The crew are changing the sails continuously to get the most out of the long-awaited wind.

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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