Builder: Carroll Marine
Designer: Bruce Farr
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News:
Team Adventure picks up a place in The Race
Author: Keith Taylor
The American catamaran Team Adventure logged 607.4 miles in 24 hours today as she moved up into third place in the standings in The Race of the Millennium. Her average speed was 25.3 knots.
After five days of repairs, the 110-foot Ollier-designed catamaran rejoined The Race from Cape Town last Friday morning and re-entered The Roaring Forties south of the Cape of Good Hope at noon GMT on Sunday. At that time
she was fourth, trailing the third-placed Polish catamaran Warta Polpharma by 258 miles, measured by each boat's distance from the finish line. At 7:00 PM GMT today, Team Adventure was 49 miles ahead of her rival and had taken
over third place.
"We had to change to the storm jib because we were going over 40 knots boat speed," explained Jacques Vincent, the French sailor who is a watch captain on Team Adventure. Skipper Cam Lewis captains the other watch. "It's true
that we are on the limits of what is reasonable but we have to keep going because we're following a depression and we mustn't leave it!"
In the complex weather strategy followed by Team Adventure, the boat was clinging to the northwest quadrant of a storm system and was enjoying moderate to strong south- southwesterly breezes to power through the leftover big seas.
Further south and west, Warta Polpharma was already in the clutches of the following high-pressure system. The Polish boat was heading northeast to stay out of the lightest winds in the center of the high and to stay north
of the next storm system following the high.
"Last night we hit 40.0 knots on the speedo - not once but twice," reported co-navigator Larry Rosenfeld. "We were spending lots of time at speeds of 33 knots with bursts to 35, 37 and 40 knots. The drivers require lots of
concentration because they are steering at these speeds into the blackness of the night and dark water. Goggles or visors are a must because the spray hits your face like a fire hose. The noise is amazing - a high pitched wail
that sounds like a falling bomb in WWII movies - as our finely-tuned machine slices mostly over and sometimes through the waves."
Team Adventure was 3,757 miles behind the race leader Club Med, which was sailing south of Tasmania this afternoon. Innovation Explorer, the second-placed boat, was 872 miles astern of Club Med. The three are sisterships, all built to an Ollier design from the same tooling.
"Back in the groove, we have been able to spread our wings and race the big and small sea birds, logging 600 miles," reported skipper Cam Lewis. "That's not bad mileage considering most of it has been with two reefs in the
mainsail and the staysail or storm jib.
"It has been wet as a car wash on steroids and a fireman's test firing range. Spray is flying, waves banging, and the cat is leaping. Full body protection in our Henri-Lloyd one-piece dry suits is a must and any sort of head and eye gear that is comfortable helps. I have been wearing my helmet
with a full clear face mask, plus, sunglasses or goggles. We need to keep our eyeballs from getting blasted out of our skulls from the stinging salt spray.
"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. I am very proud of the Team Adventure crewmembers that have all rallied around and are doing such a great job getting us back in the hunt.
It is hard to visualize the chances of overcoming our losses, but I am constantly reminded that we cannot win unless we finish."
More Information:
- YachtsandYachting.com The Race Information Page
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