Giant catamaran Innovation Explorer could stop in Wellington this weekend after suffering damage on the jarring approach to New Zealand in the non-stop round-the-world The Race.
But New Zealand skipper Grant Dalton reckons the French team may be just "playing possum" with him.
The French cat snapped the end off a daggerboard
and lost two hatch covers after a speedy 24-hour run in the Southern Ocean yesterday.
The crew were yesterday talking of making a pitstop in Wellington when they reach Cook Strait, after ordering a new daggerboard from the shipyard in France. They have already had new foresails sent to New Zealand in case they stop over.
But Dalton, still leading The Race on board Club Med, was yesterday suspicious of the Innovation Explorer team, his nearest rivals, and doubted that they would stop.
"It's not as clear-cut as it may sound," he said. "The damage isn't slowing them down at all - it's not an issue at the moment.
"You can quite happily sail along with one and a half centreboards right until you are sailing upwind again, on the other side of the Equator."
Dalton reckons the French boat could be trying to lull Club Med - now 600 miles ahead - into slowing up a little.
"Maybe they are flying a kite, playing possum with us. They're going at the same speed as us - maybe we are muggins, or they are telling porkies," he said. "But we aren't that stupid."
Dalton said there was no reason for his boat to make a stop in Wellington, unless it suffered serious damage in the next 48 hours.
On board Innovation Explorer, skipper Loick Peyron is still considering whether to stop - and incur a 48-hour time penalty.
Up ahead, Club Med was closing on the west coast of the South Island, still surfing along in 30 knot winds, which sometimes gust 50 knots.
Dalton expects Innovation Explorer to close the gap to 250 miles as the French boat rides a different weather system from further south.
