The Race...Club Med rounds Cape Horn

by Mer & Media on 12 Feb 2001 The Grant Dalton-skippered Maxi Catamaran, current leader of The Race,
rounded Cape Horn today at 0400 GMT today. Club Med's lead over second placed Innovation Explorer has dropped
to just 870 miles as the leader turns left and sails into the South Atlantic.

Sailing fast past the bottom of the Tierra del Fuego Penninsula Club Med has started a slow turn to the North and will
pass to the East of Staten Island, the last island to the South East of the South American continent. In touch with
his shore crew earlier today Grant Dalton had this to say: 'Cape Horn is long gone now. We went past the rock at
about four this morning. It was dark but with the full moon we could just make it out. Because were sailing straight
downwind we had to gybe back and forth for a while, but we actually sailed quite close, about 10 miles off. I have
seen that rock several times now but it is still an impressive sight.'

On the subject of the forecasts for the next few days Dalton had this to say: 'This big weather I have been talking
about for the last two days is definitely coming. The Chilean Weather Bureau is talking about winds of 60 knots. Our
weather charts show 40 knots. We are lucky because we will not be there when it comes through but I would be
genuinely concerned if I was on board Innovation Explorer. They are going to pass right through the middle of it as
they approach the Horn.'

Now that the last major section of the The Race has started for Club Med the crew have been able to do a thorough
audit on their supplies and fuel situation: 'We have done a check on our food and fuel now that we have passed the
Horn. Food is fine. We dug into some of our snack rations ahead of time when it was really unpleasant in the South
but otherwise we have plenty left. We took food for 69 days and we are inside that time easily so food isn't an issue.
We can eat more! Fuel is another story. We have too much so we will burn off 60 or 70 litres as soon as possible.
Those are the only two things we can do to save weight.'

Looking forward to the next week of sailing conditions Dalton commented further: 'We have a really mixed bag of
weather coming up. Unfortunately we are a couple of days too late to slip through the myriad of depressions and
ridges this part of the world is famous is for. We will inevitably be headed and have to go upwind along here soon.
This is the worst place in the world to go upwind. This is where the damage has been done in many previous round
the world races, broken masts, delamination and structural failure.'

Latest Positions, 15:00 GMT:

1 Club Med - 6862.5 miles to finish
2 Innovation Explorer +815.1 miles from leader
3 Team Adventure +5202.0 miles from leader
4 Warta Polpharma +6057.9 miles from leader
5 Team Legato +7094.3 miles from leader