Team Adventure to enter The Race

Cam Lewis whose home base is Lincolnville Maine used the Paris Boat Show to announce his participation in The Race.  Lewis heads Team Adventure which will enter the The Race of the Millenium in a 33 M Ollier designed catamaran.  This maxi catamaran will be a sister ship of Grant Dalton's Club Med.

The Race is a non stop, no limits, no assistance circumnavigation of the globe beginning in Barcelona Spain 31 December 2000.  

Team Adventure's boat will begin construction at the JMV boatyard in Cherbourg France.  Launching is scheduled for September 2000.

Lewis is best known for being the only America to sail around the world in under 80 days.  Other Team Adventure members will be: Larry Rosenfeld, and Skip Novak from the USA and Guillermo Altadill and Fernando Leon from Spain.  A total of 11 will sail on Team Adventure.

Team Adventure will have an overall lenght of 33 M (110 feet), a beam of 25.5 feet (7.7 M) draft 4M (13 feet) and a displacement of 44,000 pounds.  Mast height will be 45 M (150 feet).

Team Adeventure has set a target circumnavigation time of 60 days.  This equated to 450 miles per day, an average of 18.75 knots.

Below is an updated list of entries for The Race.  It is interesting to note that there are no French flagged entries.  Without question baots are being designed and built in France, but it would be ironic if a French flagged vessel was not at the start in Barcelona.

(C)update: Sunday 5 December

Results of Flight 4 of Round 3:

News from the race course

Once again the America's cup has seen a rather spectacular structural collapse.  This time it was Team Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes.  Dennis Conner describes the incident he saw from the team tender: ""The bulkhead that holds the running backstays to the hull fractured, so the whole works just folded up like a tin can. The cockpit is broken up to the traveler."  Essentially the aft bulkhead and 5 feet of the cockpit floor separated from the hull on a day when winds were 12-14 knots.

Team Dennis Conner has been granted a 48 hour delay to make repairs.  The damage seems more cosmetic than structural.  Depending on how long repairs take to cure Stars and Stripes could be fixed in the 48 hour window.

Young America decisively beat Abracadabra.  This boosts Young America's hopes of a top 6 finish and sets backs Abracadabra's similar hopes.  Young America showed superior speed throughout this race and is now only 2 points from the top 6.

The America True victory over America One was largely the product of a mental error by America One's afterguard.  The trouble came on the approach to the 2nd windward mark.  The course had been altered and America One's brain trust was confused by marks for other races.  America One had recently altered their afterguard so that Gavin Brady is serving as navigator.  

The situation was confusing as can be the case after a course change.  John Cutler America True's skipper stated: "We were asking Dee [Smith] and Kelvin [Harrap] where the top mark was and these guys were looking round pretty hard for it and we found it where the computer said it was."

According to John Kostecki of America One: "It was actually clear on our computer too. There was a little confusion on our boat and in our afterguard about exactly where it was."  Morgan Larson describes the situation onboard America One: "Our onboard computer was telling us to tack for the mark but we weren't listening! Instinct and a good gut reaction have won us many races and it was that same feeling that sent us towards the wrong mark."  This confusion caused in the words of America One skipper Paul Cayard: "... a fatal mistake which resulted in America True's win." The fatal mistake was overstanding the mark and allowing America True to move ahead. 

America One continues to experiment in this case with afterguard configuration looking for the best possible set up.  Despite all this America One remained in 2nd place in the standings.  If they settle down and eliminate mistakes they will be more formidable.  

Finally Fast 2000 will be unable to repair its mast and has withdrawn from the competition.  Skipper Marc Pajot said: ". There is a lot of emotion in the camp this morning because as you know it is a small group, and we have tried hard, but the game is over for us today."  When the history of this Cup is written the Fast 200 twin keel concept will be mentioned.  One of its co-designers Peter Van Oosanen summed up their design effort: "we still believe in the concept . . . we feel that we might be on the verge of something that we could term as a sort of prototype of a new concept."

Standings Table: Through Flight 2 of round 3

Reference Note:  Top 6 move onto semifinals.
In Round Robin 3 there is  1 race per day of 18.5 miles.
Victories in Round Robin 3 are worth 9 points.

Schedule for Flight 5: 
Bye- France
America True Vs. Fast 2000
Nippon Vs. America One
Young Australia vs. Abracadabra
Prada vs. Spain
Young America vs. Team Dennis Conner postponed