In this Issue:
Gold Race- Will The Record Fall
Mumm 36 Worlds- World Championships
Congressional Cup-1st day Results
Royal&Sun Alliance- 2 of 3 Great Capes Down
Whitbread- EF Education & Toshiba

Gold Race- Under 1000 miles to the Finish
    Race leader Aquitaine Innovations is under 1000 miles to the finish. However, as is
the nature of the wind, it is on the nose and AI is beating. Indeed, sometimes the wind doubles as the waypoint indicator blowing straight from your destination.

    Still Aquitaine Innovations is expected to arrive in San Francisco on March 14th. This would put her about 6 days ahead of the record for this passage. The current record is 63 days 5 hours and 55 minutes, held by PRB skipper Isabelle Autissier.
It was set in 1994.

    PRB and Geodis still trail. PRB is 708 miles behind, and Geodis 913 miles. It looks as though these boats could also break the record. For details see: www.aroundalone.com

Mumm 36 Worlds- Over and Done with
    March 2nd through March 8th were the dates and Miami FL was the place.

    As usual with the Mumm 36's the competition was lively and the sailors pro's. The 36's sailed mostly inshore windward leewards with one 60 mile distance race.

    1st place went to New Yorker owned by Tilmar Hansen of Germany with Chris Larson driving and John Kostecki calling shots. Of the 10 races, New Yorker
won 5 and sat out the last race due to her lead.

    2nd place went to Moby Lines owned by Vincenzo Onorato with Enrico Chieffi steering and Dee Smith calling tactics. She scored 4 victories and also sat out the last day with 2nd place secure.

    3rd place went to Radical Departure with Richard Marki driving his own boat. Jeff Madrigal was the tactician. Radical Departure used a final race bullet to clinch its podium position.
For details see:
http://www.stormtrysail.org/mumm36worlds/default.html

Congressional Cup- Match Racing
    Tuesday was the initial day of racing in one of America's premiere match racing regattas - the Congressional Cup. 10 skippers from 9 countries (including 3 prospective Americas Cup Skippers) are taking part.

    After the first day of racing, with each skipper sailing 4 matches there are two sailors in 1st. Both Luc Pillot & Peter Holmberg are 4-0. Next are Andy Green and Marcus Wieser at 3-1. At 2-2 are Scott Dickson & Magnus Holmberg. 1-3 is the
record of Terry Hutchinson and Neville Wittey, while Andrei Nicholaev and Fancesco de Angelis are 0-4.

    Curiously enough the bottom two have been nominated as skippers for America's Cup Challengers. To keep up with the Congressional Cup visit the official website: http://www.lbyc.org/cup.html

Royal&Sun Alliance-
    The 92' cat is still in the Southern Ocean. Today finds her at 53 degrees south latitude well south of Australia and New Zealand.

    She has passed the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin. This leaves only one great cape left Cape Horn.

    The Southern Ocean has lived up to its nasty reputation. Day 36 saw the cat record another 400+ mile day. This brings the avenge speed for the trip up to 14.1 knots. Best guess is 12 days to Cape Horn.

    In the battle to bust Sport Elec's Jules Verne record, Royal&Sun Alliance trails pretty significantly. However, its a big world, so it's still all on.

    To see continued progress visit: http://www.rsachallenge.com

Whitbread-EF Education to arrive Today
    EF Education is continuing progress towards Brazil. They will finally make their landfall today. It's been an all out struggle for the crew since losing their rig. It is now replaced. By arriving today, the boat and crew have a couple of days to ready themselves for the Saturday restart.

    Toshiba, although on shore is not having any better luck. They were disqualified from Leg 5 for putting their engine in gear to clear weeds. The International Jury did not buy the crews litany of excuses, and disqualified them.

    Should Toshiba have expected anything less? Not really. Experienced sailors know that engine use is a black and white issue.

    Saturday will see the race move onto Leg 6 which will finish in Ft. Lauderdale. It will
also see noted sailor Ed Baird's debut on Innovation Kaverner. Chessie Racing will have John Kostecki back. No doubt the racing and story lines will be top notch.

Follow it at: http://www.whitbread.org