Day 65 - Innovation Explorer ETA Tomorrow Noon
News - Monday, 03/05/2001, 8:18 PM GMT

Position	03/05/2001 8:18 PM GMT
1st	Club Med (WINNER OF THE RACE Elapsed Time: 62d 6h 56m Approx. Ave Speed:18 knots)
2nd	Innovation Explorer (204 nm from the leader. ETA Marseille at 12:00 GMT Tuesday, in light winds, avg speed 12.1 knots)
3rd	Team Adventure (5499 nm from leader. Pushing towards South Atlantic High, avg speed 18.5 knots)
4th	Warta Polpharma (6241 nm from the leader. Enjoying good conditions before the next storm, avg speed 17.8 knots)
5th	Team Legato (8944 nm from the leader. Good speed towards Cape Horn, avg speed 18.6 knots)
6th	PlayStation DNF

cat-alist Estimated arrival dates and Positions
1st	Club Med	Saturday, March 3rd - 7:56:33 PM GMT
2nd	Innovation Explorer	Tuesday, March 6th - noon
3rd	Team Adventure	around March 18th
4th	Warta Polpharma	around March 21st
5th	Team Legato	around March 30th

The finish line is in the Western Mediterranean, by Marseille.
The finish line is the length of The Catalans. Club Med is dock at the quai des Belges, where an 80 meter finger has been especially constructed for the occasion.

Click here to read more on the finish in Marseille

Club Med, 'the Untouchables' - after the finish...
In the Mediterranean, Dalton reported that they recorded their second highest wind speed of the event - 52 knots - on the run in to the finish. They crossed the finish line at 30 knots.

Club Med damage, more details:

• damage to the rope-rigging attachments.
• Extensive damage to the front beam where it joins the hull. This occurred off of Cape Horn. Some delamination occured. They spend a day and a half attaching the two layers of carbon by doing makeshift bolting.
• The hulls' core material had collapsed, leading to serious localised weakening - They bolted bulkhead doors to the inside of the hulls. Three patches were added to the port hull and two to the starboard.
• Damage to the trampolines between the hulls.
• problem with the lower shroud - a metal gin-block snapped, a piece made of aluminium which was made in the USA. It may have been a problem with the metal, or a production fault, they are not sure yet.
• Padeyes anchoring huge loads from the sail plan broke under much less load than they should have.

Innovation Explorer, 'the Hunters' - 200 miles to the finish

• Tuesday, 4:34 AM GMT: ETA Tuesday 2 PM, 111 miles to the finish.
• Monday, 10:30 PM GMT: The ETA Tuesday 11 AM, 175 miles to the finish.
• Monday, 8:18 PM GMT: The ETA Tuesday lunchtime. 204 miles to the finish.
• Monday, noon GMT: The ETA Tuesday lunchtime.
• Sunday, 7 PM GMT: The ETA Tuesday morning.
• Saturday: The ETA Monday evening.

Innovation Explorer's low pressure system that has been carrying them in is dying, to be replaced by an inconsistent high - slow going to the finish.

Loïck Peyron, on the day’s activities on board: "repairs to the mainsail battens and to the reacher. It’s not just a sail, it’s a work of Pop Art. So basically, we’re all fine here, we’re thinking of going for a swim later, but at 3 knots, the boat is going too fast!"

Loïck Peyron: "A week ago, apart from those of us who had been around the world before, they were all anxious to get in as soon as possible. Now they are perhaps starting to think that it will come too soon. We are torn, really. It is interesting to observe the different reactions."

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, Entertainment Extreme -
Team Adventure is continuing along the coast of South America, approaching the South Atlantic High, in a northwest wind and manageable seas. The wind is expected to shift northeast when they reach the trade winds.

Those Fabulous Poles - played it smart
Darius Drapella, on Sunday: "The wind isn't really a problem, we had more than 79 knots last night, it's more the seaway that's a problem for us. When you have waves over ten metres like we had, it really becomes difficult. We carried as little sail as we could, then we went down to bare poles and we also trailed a drogue to slow us down and steady the boat in the storm."

Drapella: "Another storm is forecast with 70 knots when we'll be between Argentina and the Falklands. It'll be just another storm for us in this race."

Drapella on Club Med's finish: "Congratulations to Club Med, they've had a fantastic race!"

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 - 'the Survivor's' - 3 to 4 days to Cape Horn
The Race rules state Team Legato needs to reach Marseille within 30 days of the winner to be ranked. That leaves Team Legato 27 days to cover the remaining 9,039 nautical miles (nm). Bullimore needs to cover 330nm a day at 13.75 knots average speed. Bullimore has covered 426nm in 24 hours to 13:30 GMT in a northwest airflow.

Tony Bullimore has appealed to The Race establishment to bend the rules as his round-the-world journey comes under threat of going unrecognized.

At 12:00 GMT, Bullimore said: "What we suggest is the gate could be left open longer, just so we could be recognized as a finisher.

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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