Team Legato fights deadline

by Barry Pickthall on 6 Mar 2001 Closing fast at 27 knots!

As Innovation Explorer's crew was searching for wind just 130 miles from the finish early this morning, Tony Bullimore and his crew had some to spare as TEAM LEGATO was surfing at 27 knots, bound for Cape Horn. For Bullimore, the frustrations over the past week when fickle winds in the 'Roaring Forty' latitudes cost them 1,000 miles on their closest rival Warta Polpharma, are now light years away as they storm on down into the 'Screaming Fifties'

'We are pushing the boat and ourselves as hard as possible' said Bullimore early today. 'We have a daily target of 320 miles to hit in order to finish back in Marseilles within the deadline and need to bank as many miles as possible when the conditions are like this.'

With two 400+ mile days under their belt since leaving the calms on Sunday, they have already built up a 188 mile credit. 'If we can keep going like this, we expect to round the Horn in 4-5 days (Saturday or Sunday) and can then concentrate of eating into Warta Polpharma's lead.' the TEAM LEGATO skipper confirmed.

Leading positions at 03:00 GMT today

1. Club Med Finished Marseilles 19:56GMT 4.03.01
2. Innovation Explorer +131 miles
3. Team Adventure 5,256 miles
4. Warta Polpharma 6,010 miles
5. Team Legato 8,746 miles