La Rochelle, France, May 18th, 2002


Amer Sports Too battles Mother Nature

Lisa McDonald and her crew of women finally left Gosport, England, today
at 1300 local time, to sail to La Rochelle, France, in preparation for the
restart of the Volvo Ocean Race leg eight, which starts next Saturday, May
25th at 5pm local time.

In a race against time, and the elements, work started at 4am this
morning, under floodlights, to ensure that the team made a quick getaway,
prior to a storm, which is currently sitting approximately 100 miles off
Ireland.

The team has had a frantic and frustrating week, firstly awaiting arrival
of their boat by freighter, following their dismasting during leg seven,
and then battling against time to get new mast measured and stepped into
the boat.

Speaking in Southampton yesterday, skipper Lisa McDonald said, “It’s been
a day of squalls going through, ships arriving, the boat unloading at the
terminal in Southampton, charging round to Gosport, rods (rigging) being
raced around the south coast to rig and, ultimately, be measured. We have
all the bits and all the crew in the right places and we are ready to step
the mast. We’re still on schedule at the moment.”

Arrangements were made by Peters & May, the official freight
co-coordinator to the Volvo Ocean Race, for Amer Sports Too to be carried
inside a ship from Halifax, Canada, to Liverpool, UK, rather than sitting
her on the deck of the ship in a cradle. Lisa said that although the boat
has been through the wars, on the whole, she has travelled incredibly
well. “One of our boat builders has been in charge of ensuring that the
boat has been travelled as well as possible. She was actually inside a
ship coming across the Atlantic, so she had minimal wear and tear, and the
last few days she was on a local coaster coming down the west coast and
round the south coast of England, so she’s not in too bad a nick to be
honest. She saw a little bit of salt spray, but not more than the
normal”.

The team has been working against the clock to tune the rig and go out for
a quick sail to make sure that nothing looks out of the ordinary, before
leaving for France as quickly as possible before the weather closes in.
“We’re battling Mother Nature at the moment” explains Lisa, adding,
“there’s a big storm looming off Ireland and we are hoping to get around
the corner of Ushant (off the coast of France) before that storm comes
through late on Monday”.

The mood in the camp is one of determination. “Everyone is really fired
up and we are well organized to hit the start line in good shape. We feel
like we can do just about anything at the moment. It will be good to get
to France in good time to make the necessary repairs to the boat and
carryout the routine indextenance checks that we normally do in stopovers
to ensure that we are ready for the start next weekend. We are going to
give ourselves the best opportunity to have as much time as possible in La
Rochelle.”

Contact in La Rochelle / Media Centre:
Mark Howell, Media Director, tel: +44 7818 408 568
Lizzie Green, Race Press Officer tel: +44 7801 185 320