DAY 33 - Leaders Approaching Cook Strait
News - Thursday, 02/01/2001, 6:31 AM GMT

Position	02/01/2001 6:31 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (Expects to reach Cook Strait on Saturday, 24.0 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (819 nm from the leader, daggerboard replacement and additional sail temptation for stopover, avg speed 19.6 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (4295 nm from leader. beating to windward into a north-easterly in search of stronger winds, avg speed 16.3 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (4843 nm from the leader. Has turned east, avg speed 14.2 knots)
5th	Team Legato (5625 nm from the leader. Continuing in the Roaring Forties, avg speed 17.4 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

Club Med, hotly followed by Innovation Explorer are approaching Cook Strait, the portal through which the competitors must pass to enter the Pacific Ocean. Club Med is 470 miles from the south-east point of New Zealand's South Island, with Innovation Explorer 700 miles astern. Cape Farewell, which marks the western entrance to Cook Strait, is only 380 miles ahead of Club Med. A little farther on, 515 miles ahead of her, lies Wellington, at the southeast exit of the strait. The high-pressure system developing to the west of Tasmania is not affecting Club Med as badly as expected.

Dalton: "We are reaching flat out here with the staysail and two reefs in the main. The wind is further forward now, on the beam. It is high speed all the way into the Tasman from here".

"The weather will probably slow us right down on the final approach to the Straits with a northerly wind," Dalton said. "And this in turn may well shut right down when we get there. It is still a way off and a lot can change but normally you would expect to roar downwind through the Straits from west to east". The Cook Straits is normally very windy.

Innovation Explorer is south of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania and passing through a region where the ocean floor rises. This causes the waves to become closer together and steeper, causing her speed to drop.

Will Innovation Explorer Stop in Wellington? No-one knows for sure, not even Innovation Explorer.

Skip Novak shows his sense of humour: "One thing we can say is that the boat is getting lighter with every piece of gear that falls off it. And it's not that we pushed too hard either. We had windspeeds up to 45 knots, but mainly between 35 and 40 with a fair old confused sea running up our port quarter. Last night we reduced to a staysail and three reefs and we were well in control pushing continually on 30 knots. The fact is in these conditions no matter what sail configuration you have up you are going to smash into waves with the main and aft beams. No getting around it".

"We do not know what happened to the daggerboard other than she ain't there. One big bang and that was it. We ran deeper and slowed down to have a look and tried to raise it further but it was jammed. Then we lowered it and another piece fell off as we felt it touch the rudder, and then we could raise the jagged section above the level of the hull. Until we get in calmer conditions it is too risky to pull out and assess the situation, but in the meantime we have contacted Gilles Ollier's office to prepare to ship the spare board out as soon as possible if we decide to stop".

"The casquette we can repair at sea, and the other damage we can live with, but the dagger board is a big question mark. More news on that later, but in any case we are looking forward to sunny weather near New Zealand, not only to catch up with Club Med, but also to have a good drying out session and clean up, and then onwards for the second halfway around the world".

If Innovation Explorer decided not to stop for a replacement daggerboard, this would hamper their upwind ability climbing back up the Atlantic. The daggerboard on these maxi-cats weighs about 450 pounds and is something over 23 feet long. Consider the scenario of trying to figure out a way for the crew to lift the remaining daggerboard out of its slot and set it in the other hull - every time they tacked.

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 beating to windward into a north-easterly in search of stronger winds. They will need about another day yet to reach the north of the low onto which they hope to latch to cross the Indian Ocean.

Cam Lewis: "The next 24 hours looks like more of the same upwind - port tack and lumpy seas, uncomfortable sailing. Possibly there will be a building breeze from 22 up to 30 knots. Maybe Friday we will be sailing downwind. Right now we are trying to get south, south-east, and not break the boat basically."

Warta-Polpharma has improved her performance for the distance covered in 24 hours: 482 miles covered instead of the 428 miles of her previous personal record.

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 will reach the Indian Ocean in 900 miles. They are in a stiff north westerly breeze travelling at an average speed of 17.4 knots.

The Race Statistics

Club Med
Distance travelled since Barcelona : 13 796.15 miles
Average speed since the start : 19.00 knots
Greatest distance travelled in 24 hours : 600.51 miles on 01/25/2001 peaking at 5:30 PM GMT with an average speed of 25.02 knots

Innovation Explorer
Distance travelled since Barcellone : 13 385.29 miles
Average speed since the startt : 18.44 knots
Greatest distance travelled in 24 hours : 604.47 miles on 01/30/2001 peaking at 7:00 AM GMT with an average speed of 25.19 knots

Team Adventure
Distance travelled since Barcellone : 10 284.55 miles
Average speed since the start : 14.17 knots
Greatest distance travelled in 24 hours : 617.44 miles on 01/17/2001 peaking at 8:30 PM GMT with an average speed of 25.73 knots

Warta-Polpharma
Distance travelled since Barcellone : 9 894.09 miles
Average speed since the start : 13.64 knots
Greatest distance travelled in 24 hours : 506.80 miles on 01/26/2001 peaking at 7:30 AM GMT with an average speed of 21.12 knots

Team Legato
Distance travelled since Barcellone : 7 249.12 miles
Average speed since the start : 9.99 knots
Greatest distance travelled in 24 hours :429 miles on 01/13/2001 with an average speed of 17.87 knots

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

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