Wellington NZ - arrival soon of Team Adventure

by Keith Taylor on 15 Feb 2001 TEAM ADVENTURE IS FORECAST TO ARRIVE
IN WELLINGTON, NZ, LATE TODAY FOR REPAIRS

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, February 15, 2001 -Team Adventure, the 110-foot
American catamaran competing in The Race of the Millennium, entered Cook
Strait this afternoon and was expected to dock in Wellington before
midnight.

The big cat, currently placed third in the non-stop race around the world,
is making its second stop to repair the main crossbeam, first damaged when
the boat struck a rogue wave in the Southern Ocean west of Cape Town, South
Africa. The beam is one of two major structural members that ties two hulls
together, and also supports the boat's 15-story high wing mast.

As a penalty for accepting outside assistance, the boat must remain in port
for 60 hours. However the repair work might take as long as 90 hours,
according to initial estimates prepared by the international team of boat
builders that has gathered to perform the work.

Team Adventure began picking up speed this afternoon as she rounded Cape
Farewell, marking the entrance to Cook Strait, at the northwestern tip of
the South Island.

'We are beginning the turn into Cook Strait and the boat speed has picked up
to 14 knots,' co-navigator Larry Rosenfeld reported at 3:30 PM local time.
'The water is flat and we can make good time. We still have 130 miles to go
and it is difficult to forecast our exact arrival time because a few knots
difference in wind speed has a major effect on our boat speed. Remember,
this boat can sail at 1.85 times the speed of the wind under ideal
conditions.'

Skipper Cam Lewis was philosophical about his boat's delayed arrival in
Wellington. It was originally forecast to get here on Tuesday.

'Today has been one requiring patience, with light to very light winds, and
few miles sailed,' he said. 'We only logged 150 miles in the last 24 hours.
That is not an impressive performance but that is life here today. With a
new breeze forecast to come in from the northwest, we expect a speedy sail
down Cook Strait.

'Patience has been the key ingredient to staying focused on sailing in light
airs. It is always easy to blast along in a breeze and fine-tune the sails
and rigging for that last little bit of speed. When it comes down to
drifting around in light changing conditions one has to stay calm and relax,
changing gears, tweaking sails and eking out a knot or two of speed with
subtle changes to course and trim.

'We got so slow today for a while that our sailmaker Randy Smyth did his
wind dance and jumped overboard just to scare up a breeze. It worked well.
Within minutes of his splash and quick swim a new breeze quickly filled in
and away we went.'

Lewis reported that structural repairs made in Cape Town to the internal
framing of the crossbeam were holding up well and were not part of the
current problem. The damage, he said, was limited to repairs to the external
skin of the crossbeam, where several laminates of carbonfiber cloth were
being stripped away by the action of waves blasting against the beam and
exposing the inner core of the skin.

After leading in the early stages of The Race, Lewis' boat was only 140
miles behind the current race leader Club Med when she struck the wave,
damaging the beam and injuring two crewmembers who were put ashore in Cape
Town for medical treatment. Two other crew members chose to leave the boat
for personal reasons. Today, Team Adventure was 6,054 miles behind Club Med,
skippered by New Zealander Grant Dalton. The second-placed boat, Innovation
Explorer, was 1,025 miles astern of Club Med.

Team Adventure is a partner in a pair of innovative web sites.
www.nationalgeographic.com/teamrace, the web site of the National Geographic
Society, is the educational partner in the collaborative venture. The
National Public Radio affiliates WBUR in Boston, MA, at www.WBUR.org, and
WRNI in Providence, RI, at www.wrni.org, are the exclusive radio media
partners.

Monster.com, the leading global online careers site and the flagship brand
of TMP Worldwide (NASDAQ: 'TMPW'; ASX: 'TMP'), has signed a Sponsor Level
Partnership - becoming the first major sponsor of the team.

For more information on Team Adventure, go to http://www.TeamAdventure.org
or visit the race site at http://www.therace.org. Additionally, individuals
wishing to donate to the Team Adventure Education Foundation or corporations
looking for sponsorship opportunities should contact Lydia Langston at
Lydia@TeamAdventure.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Keith Taylor Lydia Langston
Taylor Associates Team Adventure
Tel: +64-21-157-7937 Tel: +1 (401) 862-7600
KeithTaylor@TeamAdventure.org Lydia@TeamAdventure.org