Today's Sailing News 

The Race: Advantage Club Med

It appears that the dash to strong winds has been won by Club Med. With an average speed of 20.3 knots in the last hour Club Med has lengthened her lead over Team Adventure to 95 miles. Team Adventure 
averaged 12.7 knots. Innovation Explorer farthest to the east is even
slower 6.7 knots in the past hour. 

Club Med's Franck Profitt reports: "This is it. We are on the southern expressway."

Monday nite Club Med switched from a heading of 128° to 218°. This
change to a southerly course may have allowed Club Med the advantage of
the westerlies first.

Club Med co-skipper Grant Dalton is both please about his present position and confident about the future saying, "We¹ve started turning left a bit. He (Cam Lewis) has tucked in behind us. We¹ve shut the door on him a bit for now which is nice. There are still 19070 miles to sail to the finish, so we couldn¹t say he¹s totally under control, but we do have him where we want him."

As they near the Southern Ocean Dalton talks about the condition of the men of his multi national crew: "The standby watch system we are using is working well. We all have our breakfast at 0400 and I¹ve managed to be asleep in my bunk until just now, which is three hours worth. The crew are well rested. I¹m happy with their condition."

While the three sisters fight the high pressure once again the
fleet's small fry Warta Polpharma recorded the best mileage in 24 hours:
347.

Team Legato is still in the Northern Hemisphere having sailed 213 miles. They are approaching the Doldrums and skipper Tony Bullimore 
states how important that passage will be: "Today and tomorrow are crunch days as far as our challenge on our Polish rivals 'Warta Polpharma' is concerned. If we can keep going like this, we will hold on to much of what we have regained over the past week. If we get parked up in no wind, then we will be back to where we started."

The leaders now begin to head into an area where no Race Class cat has sailed- The Southern Ocean. With untried boats abounding conserving your machine may now be most important.

Times Clipper Update

Leg 5 is  from the Galapagos Islands to Hawaii, 4100 miles.

Leader: Plymouth Clipper by 43 miles

Best 24 Hour Run: Jersey Clipper 241 miles 

Position: Boats range from 10 to 17 degrees north of the equator

Current Weather: NE 20-30 knots

Weather Forecast: Data NA

Head to the Sailing Daily Forum and discuss sailing!

Today's Vendee Globe Report:    More around Cape Horn

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 Today's Sailing News 

Key West: Day 1 Report

Chamber of Commerce conditions greeted the record fleet at the 2001 Key West Race Week. Moderate winds, and sunshine provided fabulous sailing conditions.

Liking these conditions the best was Harry Melges in the Melges 24 class. His Zenda Express won both races sailed by the largest fleet.

One of his wins came in a photo finish as did Atlanti XI's win over Pegasus in the Farr 40 class.

For the day, Pegasus, with a 2nd and 7th got the better of Barking Mad (6th and 15th) the other boat competing for the Admirals Cup berth.

In the One Design 35 class Avalanche again had a good first day of Race Week. The Virginia based boat finished 5th and 1st to lead by
2 points over Windquest with two time national Champion Dan Cheresh on board.

Two West Michigan boats had good first days. The Nelson Marek 30 Caramba finished 4th and 5th in her PHRF class. Asylum sailing
in the competitive Mumm 30 fleet posted a pair of top 10's: 4th and 9th.

Several boats had perfect scores on Day 1.  Esmeralda won both races in IMS Class A.  In PHRF Class E Tiburon added to a victory in the Fort Lauderdale to Key West race with a pair of 1sts.

Two one design classes, the J 80 and the Melges 24's saw the same boat get the gun in both races.

Race Week has 7 boats sailing to defend their 2000 championship.  The biggest Highland Fling the CM 60 was nailed by port tacking Javelin.  In the days 2nd race they finished 6th.  Highland Fling was granted redress for the race 1 incident.

Plum Crazy the defending champion in the J 105 class started off with a 14th.  They showed champion form winning the 2nd race. 

We'll continue to track defending champions and the overall regatta throughout the week.

Key West Day 2:  Weather Report

The sailors at Key West Race week look to be in for another nice day on the water. 

Temperatures in the 70's a slight chance of some light rain showers. 

Winds are expected to be NE this morning around 10, then veering to the east also at 10 knots in the afternoon.

As of 0850 on the water observations show wind direction from 020 to 040 at speeds from 9 to 12 knots.

Again it should be a day where boat handling and picking the  subtle shifts should provide good finishes.

Today's Cam-Gram Quote 

BT Challenge Update

Leg 3 is  Buenos Aries to  Wellington New Zealand via Cape Horn.  

Leader: 3 finishers in the following order: LG Flatron, Olympic Group, Compaq

Best 24 Hour Run: Logica 202 miles

Position: Team Spirit, Quadstone under 100 miles to finish

Current Weather: NW force 8

Weather Forecast: Eventually decreasing to light and variable near the finish.