SEB on route for Chile

by Fredrik Trahn on 12 Feb 2002 SEB, the Swedish boat in the Volvo Ocean Race is on route for assistance in Chilean Punta Arenas, located on the western
shore of Magellan's Sound. SEB lost her rig last Thursday and will be assisted in Punta Arenas. Therefore the spare mast
will no longer be sent to Ushuaia in Argentina, but to Rio in Brazil.

SEB's crew has managed to prolong the mast with the broken boom, resulting in a four metres high jury-rig. They have also
managed to erect the broken spinnaker pole as a mizzenmast in the cockpit, and SEB is proceeding in seven to ten knots of
speed.

SEB is estimated to arrive in Punta Arenas, Chile on Saturday the 16th and will there be lifted onboard a cargo vessel for
further transport to Rio de Janeiro, the stopover city following the fourth leg in the Volvo Ocean Race. In Rio all repairs
will be carried out and the new mast will be mounted.

The cargo ship is estimated to arrive in Rio on February 24th or 25th.

'This really is a logistical challenge for us. Getting the spare mast to the boat proved harder than we initially thought,
that's why we have decided to get the boat to the mast instead. It is an enormous amount of organizing that starts when a
mast breaks' says Pelle Norberg, Managing Director for the syndicate company within Team SEB.

The decision of retiring from the leg or not will not be made until SEB's arrival in Chile. There are many parameters to
weigh in when making the decision, for example how the race has developed for the other boats.

'With this scenario we make the solution as simple as possible for us, and we get the time we need for preparing ourselves
to 100 per cent for the next leg' says Gurra Krantz, skipper of SEB.