News and Notes from The Race

It was a good news/bad news week for Pete Goss and Team Phillips.  The good news is that Queen Elizabeth II has agreed to name Team Phillips in a ceremony 14 March 2000.  After this ceremony Team Phillip will make an attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy around the world record.

The bad news is that the launch date has been pushed back.  The new date is 29 February 2000 as opposed to the old date of 12 January 2000.  

The delay is primarily due to the construction of the twin masts falling behind schedule.  Since the masts are being built in close proximity to the boat, moving the boat out of the shed would have caused problems in finishing the masts.  Due to this Pete Goss decided to: "take the harder decision to wait until the masts were fully ready."  

A second British entrant in The Race is Tony Bullimore's Millennium Challenge.  Millennium Challenge will sail the Irens designed catamaraman formerly known as ENZA which was the 2nd holder of the Jules Verne Trophy.

Millennium Challenge is being modified and lengthened from 28M to 30.4M.  Bullimore expects the work to be complete by February 2000.  Also, Millennium Challenge will sport a new wing mast.

Bullimore has announced the sailors who will fill at least part of his crew.  They are Australian Jim Close, Frenchman Herve Jan and from Great Britain Jeff Houlgrave also Millennium Challenge's project manager.

From the Netherlands comes news that Team Henk de Velde is building a 40 M boat for The Race.  Skippered by Henk De Velde the boat will be be a 40 meter catamaran designed by Crowther designs of Australia.  Like Team Phillips this boat will have 1 rig per hull.  The 46 M high masts will be built by Carbo Spar UK.  Rig type will be Aero Rig. Each of these rigs will carry 600 square meters of sail.   Sails to be built by North Belgium out of Spectra.

Construction will begin with the new year.  Launching scheduled for September 2000.

From France comes word that there will be three identical Code Zero hulls produces.  Code Zero # 1 will be Club Med, Code Zero # 3 will be Team Adventure.  Hull# 2 will be sailed by a still undisclosed team.

It would seem likely that a French team would sail Code Zero # 2.  French sailors are the most skilled when it comes to big cats, and the entrant list still lacks a French team.

Cam Lewis and Team Adventure continue to work to fully fund their effort.  Lewis has disclosed that Team Adventure is considering fitting their boat with a canting mast, and water ballast.

In a unique gesture Cam Lewis will host an open house at his house in Lincolnville Maine. Details are available on the Team Adventure Website.
Soon after this Cam Lewis will head to France to oversee construction of Team Adventure's boat beginning January 3.

By 1 November the fleet of giant multi hulls will be in Monaco.  1 December will see them arrive in the starting port of Barcelona Spain.  It looks like the spectacular potential of The Race for the Millennium will filled as the entry table below shows.