And then there were eight

Challenge Mondial Assistance sees another dismasting

Pos	Boat	Lat	Long	SOG	COG	Time of fix	DTF	DTL
1	Groupama	40 25.80' N	18 29.32' E	10.1	353	19/05/2003 16:00	342	0
2	Banque Populaire	40 03.40' N	18 31.64' E	9.6	19	19/05/2003 15:32	357	14.7
3	Géant	39 46.80' N	18 40.60' E	12.5	54	19/05/2003 16:00	379	36.8
4	Bonduelle	39 25.76' N	18 38.04' E	13.1	46	19/05/2003 15:32	395	52.7
5	Sodebo	38 16.60' N	16 56.20' E	11.2	15	19/05/2003 16:00	492	150
6	Sergio Tacchini	38 06.80' N	16 57.52' E	13.4	28	19/05/2003 16:00	499	157
7	Banque Covefi	37 52.92' N	16 01.98' E	4.6	59	19/05/2003 15:00	533	191
8	Sopra Group	37 57.40' N	8 04.92' E	4.5	103	19/05/2003 16:00	971	629

At 0905GMT this morning Jean Maurel's Bayer CropScience dismasted while near Croton on the southern Italian coast. At the time of the incident Bayer CropScience was lying in second position with just 467 miles to go to the finish line in Rimini.

This is second dismasting in the Challenge Mondial Assistance after Belgacom and indicates that the mast failures experienced in the 60ft trimaran class over the last two years are far from cured.

In a radio interview with race HQ in Paris, Maurel said that they had been sailing in 20 knots of wind under single reefed main and staysail. The mast fell down suddenly and they have no idea of the cause at this stage. It may been "a compression break, or a snapped shroud or strop" commented Maurel. As the mast down it damaged a 1.5m part of the starboard float, although it is not clear whether this was damaged by the impact of the mast falling on it or the shroud pulling it off.

All the crew is safe and uninjured and they have not requested any assistance. They have been able to salvage a 7m length of mast, but the seas were too big to save the rest.

This leaves the eight remaining boats in two distinct groups - with Franck Cammas' Groupama in first place narrowly ahead of Banque Populaire. The front three are now round the heel of Italy and attempting to find some wind in which to beat up the Adriatic to the finish.

Once again over the next 24 hours the forecast looks like it will go light for the leaders as they try to make their way to the Rimini finish line, while those coming up from astern should have breeze from a high pressure system to the west of Sicily.