Staying alive on the sea

Maxi-catamaran Club Med survived material and structural problems in winning the inaugural running of The Race. The Grant Dalton-skippered Club Med completed its global circumnavigation March 3, arriving in Marseilles, France, 62 days, six hours, 56 minutes and 33 seconds after the start in Barcelona, Spain. North of the Falkland Islands en route to France, the 110-foot starboard hull, a primary structure, began to flex near the main crossbeam. The core disintegrated between the delaminated skins. The crew bolted bulkhead doors to the inside of the polymer-matrix-composite hulls, borrowing the bolts from winch bases and the generator. Other failures involved a lower Kevlar aramid-fiber shroud, the trampolines between the hulls, eye-bolt anchors and ballast pumps. Second-place Innovation Explorer, skippered jointly by Loick Peyron and Skip Novak, arrived March 6 in Marseilles. Three others remained on the course. Multiplast Composite Yachts of Vannes, France, built Club Med, Innovation Explorer and two other entrants. Ocean sailor Bruno Peyron proposed the millennium-themed race in 1993.