Gibraltar Tonight for Club Med in The Race

by Mer & Media on 2 Mar 2001 Club Med, the undisputed leader of The Race, will pass through the Straits of Gibraltar tonight, leaving the Atlantic behind and renewing an acquaintance with the Mediterranean.

At noon today the international crew on board Club Med had worked out to their biggest lead over second placed Innovation Explorer. More than 1200 miles separates the two boats and barring break downs the big blue catamaran seems more and more likely to cross the finish line in Marseilles in first place at the weekend.

But The Race is not over, not yet anyway. Joined by satellite telephone this morning skipper Grant Dalton had this cautious outlook on the remaining distance to be sailed:

'We are 240 miles from the Straits, and right now I think we'll make it through on this gybe. The wind came through eventually yesterday afternoon, and it has been building ever since. We have 25-30 knots from the South West at the moment, we are really smoking. We are averaging 24 knots straight at the mark.'

'We have full sail set right, the big spinnaker and full main. In the gusts there is more than 30 knots and we don't need it all, we'd be happier with 20-25 knots.'

'When this conversation is finished I'll be back on deck and we'll change the big kite for the storm spinnaker and take a reef in the main. We have 960 miles to sail to the finish and the only thing we need to do right now is to keep the boat in one piece.'

Cautious to the last after more than 24000 miles sailed in the roughest conditions imaginable, this first maxi catamaran circumnavigation could take as little as 63 days total time. The crew will only be concentrating on one remaining goal - to get their boat home in one piece. Dalton was adamant:

'All that matters to the crew of Club Med is getting there safely. We have our biggest ever lead over Innovation Explorer at the moment and it will only increase. We are closer to the finish than our nearest rival so it would be stupid to break something now.'

The last major milestone on the route to the finish line is the gate to the Mediterranean, the narrow strip of water that separates North Africa and Europe. The Gibraltar Straits will not be straightforward:

'There will be wind in the Med after we have passed Gib but right now we are only concentrating on the Straits. We know that there will be a lot of wind through there tonight and a nasty short sea, so we have to be really careful. We'll be there at midnight local time so it will be dark, there will be, by definition, a lot of shipping and it will be gusty. The Med will come later and we'll deal with it when we get there.'

Ranking on 01 Mar 2001 at 11:00:00 GMT:

1.Club Med / dtf 959.5 miles
2.Innovation Explorer / dtl 1209.1 miles
3.Team Adventure / dtl 5995.5 miles
4.Warta Polpharma / dtl 6407.9 miles
5.Team Legato / dtl 8933.0 miles