DAY 34 - Club Med in Cook Strait, New Zealand Set for Welcoming
News - Friday, 02/02/2001, 4:43 AM GMT

Position	02/02/2001 4:43 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (New Zealand poised to welcome Dalton, Quilter and team in Cook Strait, 16.5 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (644 nm from the leader, daggerboard replacement and additional sail is on route to Wellington, avg speed 23.8 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (4376 nm from leader. Slow progress over now, finally downwind conditions, avg speed 14.9 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (4881 nm from the leader. Off of île aux Cochons, reaching, avg speed 14.8 knots)
5th	Team Legato (5635 nm from the leader. 200 miles west of the longitude of Cape Town, avg speed 18.3 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

Club Med passed Cape Farewell beach, at the westernmost point of New Zealand's South Island and has turned to starboard to pass Wellington early this Friday morning, the beginning of Cook Strait, the body of water separating New Zealand's two islands, named as such because James Cook crossed through in 1769.

Her speed has dropped as she approaches the high land of New Zealand as it is being influenced by variable winds and the coastline. Sailing is very popular in New Zealand and there will be a lot of people out to see them go past, it is likely there will be a fleet of private boats out in the waters off New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington and many along the shoreline.

Dalton: "Cape Farewell is the first bit of land we will see, but I think that the Cook Strait proper begins 60 miles further east at Stephen's Island, a rocky islet just North of Cape Stephens on d'Urville Island, which is some 35 miles northeast of the town of Nelson".

Dalton confirmed the worst was behind them: "For us, the hardest part of The Race is over. We always saw the Indian Ocean as where the danger lay.

Quilter (navigator) gave a forecast the route home, after passing through the Cook Strait, saying: "The Pacific is generally a bit nicer and it’s not too far to Cape Horn from here. There’s another low coming through, and we should be able to jump on it."

Sailing conditions in the strait are expected to be excellent, with thirty knots of favourable wind. Club Med may be slowed down on the other side, though, where they will be in the lee of the mountainous relief of South Island, whose highest peak is Mount Cook, at 12,349 feet.

Will Innovation Explorer stop and suffer the 48 hour penalty?
According to the race office, a freight plane carrying a reacher and daggerboard is scheduled to leave France on Saturday to arrive in Wellington Monday.

If they were to continue without stopping, which is not likely, sailing upwind without the daggerboard would create weather helm and they would not be able sail at their maximum potential. Also, there would be tremendous strain on the remaining board rendering it a high risk of breakage. They could conceivably lose 48 hours in performance by not stopping and sailing with one or no daggerboards (if the second one breaks) versus the alternative of getting the replacement daggerboard and the bonus of the reacher - peace of mind and increased safety cannot be underestimated.

Innovation Explorer: Riding winds of 30 knots, they were about to put a reef in the mainsail. The weather was perfect with flat seas, and Innovation was sandwiched between a low-pressure system to the south and a high-pressure to the north.

Team Adventure has finally been released from battling into headwinds and lumpy seas and is now gaining speed sailing in Southern Ocean downwind conditions with a powerful but regular swell from behind and 25 to 30 knots of wind. Team Adventure had a momentary drop in speed when she took a break in a lull of wind to lower the mainsail to repair some broken battens. Team Adventure is 300 miles off the Kerguelen Islands.

Warta Polpharma, is off of île aux Cochons (translates to island of pigs), part of the Crozet Islands, has been released from the high pressure system and is now reaching to the north-east of the low, drawing power from it.

Team Legato has had another day enjoying the Roaring Forties. "We are surfing along at 20-25 knots in perfect conditions". Team Legato is the second fastest boat in the fleet after Innovation Explorer today and are about 200 miles west of the longitude of Cape Town.

Team Adventure, Warta Polpharma and Team Legato will have plenty of breeze for the next couple of days.

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

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

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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