The Race...the Poles are bared poled in heavy seas.

by Barry Pickthall on 28 Feb 2001 TEAM LEGATO finds wind - as Poles go bare poles!

Tony Bullimore and his TEAM LEGATO crew are getting back up to speed after a
frustrating 24 36 hours of little or no wind. while their Polish rivals on
Warta Polpharma are battling against the other extreme - sailing under bare
poles in 60 knot winds..
TEAM LEGATO has covered 224 miles during the past 24 hours as the crew take
the calculated gamble of sailing on an east,nor'easterly course towards the
promise of better winds tonight instead of heading southeast into strong
headwinds.
Robbie Burns, a member of the St James's Yachting team coordinating the
weather routing for TEAM LEGATO explains: 'Our plan is to stay on an ENE
course that will take the boat around the top of a low just ahead of them.
The alternative was to continue SE in favourable winds that will rapidly
back in 18 hours time to 45 kt headwinds and big seas. Although they have
slowed down on this new course they will at least make it to fresher winds
around a big high to the East tomorrow. With 6 crew on board it's not the
best plan to stuff them into gale force headwinds and damage them or the
boat. It's pretty exposed down there and I have an upper wind limit I am
trying to keep them out of - hence the change in plan. The plan has to
remain fluid as the weather systems don't conform exactly to the long range
forecasts'.

Bullimore might have expected the gap between themselves and Warta Polpharma
to widen 3-400 miles, but the Poles are currently battling with a 60 knot
storm that has slowed their progress considerably and caused some sail
damage. Crewman Jarek Kaczorowski told race organisers yesterday
'Everything is sodden.. Our sleeping bags are as damp inside as outside and
you have to be extremely tired to sleep in them. It's impossible to dry them
because it is constantly raining and mountains of salt water wash over the
decks. The waves are 8 to 10 metres tall at the moment! To makes things
worse, a 50-60 knot wind is on the way from the south-west. We are about 5
days from Cape Horn. We hope that this will be the last strong gale in the
Pacific. We're exhausted!'

As a result, Warta Polpharma has gained only 200 miles from TEAM LEGATO over
the past 2 days, and with their Raytheon speedo now recording double digits
once more, Bullimore an his crew remain optimistic that this light weather
gamble will eventually pay better dividends. 'With the weather systems
constantly changing down here, you have to be guided by what is likely to
happen not later today, but in 3-4 days time. That's why we rely on the
advice of our weather routers' Tony explained by satellite phone. We don't
want to finish up on the wrong side of a Low pressure system '