His boat is not yet finished, the coffers are still not full, the crew list remains incomplete. It would be one thing if the goal were an entry in this January's Key West Race Week, but for Cam Lewis, the intent is a trifle more grand. In nine weeks, on Dec. 31, Lewis plans to point the twin bows of his as-yet-unnamed 110-foot catamaran south toward Antarctica to begin The Race, the nonstop sprint around the globe.

For Lewis, the first, more important race will be the one to get to the starting line.

Today, Lewis is scheduled to arrive in France to oversee the final stages of construction of his Gilles Ollier-designed multihull, a direct sister ship to two vessels that are already in the water, the New Zealander Grant Dalton's Club Med and the Frenchman Loick Peyron's Code One. Lewis's boat, a month overdue, is now on schedule to be launched on Nov. 7.

In telephone interviews last week, Lewis and Larry Rosenfeld, his partner in Team Adventure — the project's working name until a title sponsor is procured — said that they had raised $5 million of their $7.5 million budget from private donors but that they needed to secure the balance before setting out. But both sailors expressed confidence that they would find a way.

"It's not like we're not going because we're late," Lewis said. "If something gets in our way, be it a whale, a cargo ship, or finances, it still won't stop us. We are going to be at the starting line of The Race and as ready to go as we can be."

When it comes to fund-raising, Lewis received good news and bad news last week as the cover story in the current issue of Outside magazine. While the widespread exposure is a positive, Lewis was cast as a man born to privilege, perhaps not the best light for someone seeking millions from a corporate sponsor.

Of Lewis, the reporter Rob Buchanan wrote: "With a comfortable private income, a beautiful former model wife, two towheaded boys, and a forested estate a few minutes from Penobscot Bay, he is, at least on paper, the ultimate preppie prince."

Lewis said of the article: "Maybe that article wasn't the best thing in the world. Larry and I have put a lot of our money into this. But the fact is that we don't have the wherewithal to just write a check and make it happen. I do know some people of high net worth who said they'd contribute but who are sitting on the fence waiting to see if we're really going. But I'm not counting on them."

More troubling to Lewis than the money issue is the suggestion that he is a high-seas cowboy who plays it fast and loose when it comes to safety.

"I've been called all sorts of names, cavalier and the like, but I've had a tough year trying to pull this program together," he said. "If there's a lot of controversy surrounding this thing, I just have to look forward."

Whatever the theories about Lewis, he is a superb sailor who has succeeded in venues ranging from high-speed dinghies to the America's Cup. And one fact is indisputable: he is one of the few competitors in The Race who has already pushed a big catamaran across the Southern Ocean, the ring of water south of Africa, Australia and South America. In 1993, aboard Commodore Explorer, he was the sole American in a crew that posted the first sub-80-day circumnavigation.

One of his mates on that voyage, Jacques Vincent, has signed on aboard Team Adventure. So too has the French weather wizard and router Jean-Yves Bernot, and the American multihull champion and sailmaker Randy Smyth.

"I think our team will be one of our strengths," said Rosenfeld, who will serve as co-navigator with Bernot.

The late launch may also prove helpful because Team Adventure's builders have learned lessons from both Club Med and Code One, the boats previously constructed at the JMV boat yard in Cherbourg, France. In a late-summer incident, Club Med sustained extensive damage to its bow, and Lewis's boat has been appropriately reinforced in that area.

On the other hand, Lewis also said the program would be further along had Dalton, Club Med's skipper, been more cooperative. "It's been a little difficult with the Dalton program being very secretive and such," Lewis said. "I wasn't even allowed to step on Club Med."

In the weeks ahead, Lewis and his team will have to figure things out for themselves as they conduct sea trials, make their 2,500-mile qualifying sail, and assemble in Barcelona, Spain, for final preparations before the late December start. It will be a breakneck pace, and so it was easy to wonder if, having already raced around the world, Lewis ever questioned his sanity in wanting to do it again.

He laughed as he answered. "That's for other people to do," he said.