DAY 45 - Dalton Fast Progress, Innovation Explorer Passes Cape Horn Only 10 miles from the Reefs, Team Legato concerned About Running out of Food
News - Tuesday, 02/13/2001, 5:05 AM GMT

Position	02/13/2001 5:05 AM GMT
1st	Club Med (5979 nm from finish. Racing to beat massive high pressure zone, avg speed 23.1 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (953 nm from the leader. Rounded Cape Horn within 10 miles of the reefs, avg speed 18.2 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (5812 nm from leader. Getting a short repreive from the light winds, avg speed 8.9 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (6511 nm from the leader. South of Tasmania, in same conditions as Team Adventure, avg speed 8.9 knots)
5th	Team Legato (7384 nm from the leader. Worried about having enough food, avg speed 16.2 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

Club Med Grant Dalton: "We are flying, really flying up the coast here. We are more than 200 miles north of the Falklands and we only went round Cape Horn yesterday. We are 600 miles South of Montevideo, this is very fast progress."

"The stretch of ocean between the Falklands and Rio is one of the most dangerous stretches in The Race. With a lot of current heading south there is always a reason for the sea to be confused, short and random. Basically able to destroy boats quickly. We are sailing with two reefs and a staysail set in 30 knots of wind. The angle is about 100 degrees so it is fast. It is pretty bumpy so we have opened up the angle a bit to speed her up and make it smoother."

The next major obstacle is the St. Helena's High. A large anticyclone has moved east into her path, leaving the skipper with a choice of staying west but heading upwind, or trying to go through the middle where there is little wind at all.

Dalton: "We're just trying to get as far north as we can to deal with this high pressure. It's a big, huge high pressure, and maybe, maybe, maybe, we'll be able to get around the front of it. That's why we have really got the power on."

Grant Dalton has confirmed that he is joining the Finnish boat builder Nautor's challenge for the Volvo Ocean Race, as sailing director, starting 23 September 2001. He will bring extensive round-the-world project experience and will choose the crew and set the goals and work ethic for the preparation and the competition.

Volvo has decided to launch a new division called Nautor Challenges for the next Volvo Ocean Race with two new Volvo Ocean 60s - one designed by Frers, the other by Farr.

The first of these boats, to be launched in May, will be a German Frers design. Frers is the Swan range 'house' designer and has entered several boats in the Whitbread Race before including the line honours and overall winner in the 1981-82 race, the Dutch Maxi "Flyer". The second boat, to be launched in late June, will be a Bruce Farr design. Farr is the current reference in Volvo Ocean Race design having won every Whitbread Race since 1985.

This project will allow the Nautor boatyard to continue to gather current design and operating experience in arguably the world's toughest test for sailing boats, a fully-crewed round the world race.

Innovation Explorer has passed Cape Horn, merely 10 miles from the reefs. The winds were thankfully not as fierce as had been predicted, blowing westerly at about 30 knots, however a confused sea state and strong currents combined to send her slamming into waves. Novak: "They are very short seas and we are tending to plough into the next wave and sticking the front beam in quite often and stopping."

The sailors had two choices. The logical one was to pass offshore from the cape in order to avoid facing a very turbulent sea and strong winds. The other was to take a shorter and faster route closer by the Horn which would also allow showing it to the crew, some of whom couldn't really imagine taking part in a circumnavigation without laying eyes on the infamous Cape. So Innovation Explorer stuck close by Hermite Island and then set a course that brought her to the foot of the lighthouse, then following an inshore route set a course due northeast passing between Patagonia and the Estrados Islands.

The Race organizer Bruno Peyron is aboard Darwin Sound, Yvon Faucconier's 21m/70ft ketch, near to the Horn, ready to greet his brother, Loick, as he passes through. Innovation Explorer is prepared with drogue anchors, ballasts.

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 500 miles away from the mouth of Cook Strait and even more light conditions. For the second day they have struggled in light winds pushing northeast up toward Cape Farewell, which guards the entrance to the Cook Strait. They have gotten a short reprieve from the light winds with 9 knots of boat speed.

Lewis on the beam damage: "After the last low, we noticed some cracks in outer skin. Over the last couple of days, that has become a bit alarming. It's all peeling off again. I have decided to pull over in Wellington and fix this again. We will grind out the damaged carbon layer, and hopefully find that the core is OK. We can dry that out if needs be and re-apply layers of carbon-fiber material. We will also take the chance to have a few showers and a steak, and maybe some New Zealand lamb. But the main thing will be to get this faring fixed and move on."

Warta Polpharma has just crossed the longitude of the southern tip of Tasmania, and is now in the same conditions as Team Adventure.

Team Legato is still in favorable conditions and is gaining ground on the two maxi-cats. They are worried about having enough food, they have provisions for 75 days, and are barely half-way round in 42 days.

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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