By Kathleen May

October 16, 2001

Illbruck saw its slim lead of twenty miles evaporate during the night as Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One crept closer and closer. Amer Sports One rounded the waypoint of Ilha Trindade on Monday morning six hours after Illbruck set a course straight for Cape Town and passed Illbruck. John Kostecki's Illbruck looked pretty comfortable in the lead and it looked as though they might actually win leg one. With a lead of 33 miles Amer Sports One is clearly in the catbird seat with 1961 nautical miles to the finish. Still you can't completely write Illbruck off, John Kostecki and navigator Juan Villa managed to take Chessie Racing from next to last, out of nine boats in the last Whitbread to a second place finish in leg eight.

Team News Corp has taken a turn for the worst. Having headed north to find more favorable winds their way has been blocked by winds that were less then favorable. Tacking south has not helped they have strong headwinds blocking their way once again. The question begs to be asked; could this run of bad luck have anything to do with the thirteenth man they have onboard Bart Simpson?

With the fleet in tight formation behind Illbruck and Amer Sports One pulling away from them the mood aboard Illbruck is philosophical. Mark Christensen reflected on Illbruck's situation. "Today marked a big change in the race as for the first time we headed east in the general direction of Cape Town. This morning at sunrise we rounded the last waypoint, Trindade. We knew the fleet would compress behind us as we would be going on the wind (and not laying Cape Town) while the others reached in behind. What we weren't prepared for was the big cloud that parked on us for two hours. Finally we started moving and the predicted loss at the next sked ranged from ten to twenty miles and I have never seen a crew so happy to have lost ten miles on a sked."

Illbruck's crew is hard at work trying to make up the miles and over take Amer Sports One. The crew is keeping busy shifting 1500 pounds of gear from one side of the boat to the other every time they tack. Mark Christensen reports they are tacking as often as every ten minutes. The longest time between tacks has been about three hours not much time to eat and sleep in.