Sanderson breaks daggerboard

Latest update from The Transat

Major and disappointing news came from Kiwi skipper, Mike Sanderson, this morning who admitted live on Transat Radio that he had a broken daggerboard on board Pindar AlphaGraphics. The starboard daggerboard was "shattered" during the 45 knots that hit the fleet last Friday night (4.6.04). As soon as the breakage occured, Sanderson tacked onto starboard which enabled him to keep the pace with the leader Mike Golding. But in the last couple of days, Pindar AlphaGraphics was forced to tack back on to port and since then the gap between Sanderson and Golding has been widening. Sanderson is unable to switch the 'boards' over as they are designed to fit the port and starboard daggerboard casings, and the 0900 GMT poll shows Pindar AlphaGraphics trailing Ecover by 36 miles.

Sanderson had been putting on an exceptional show in his first solo race and leaves no one in any doubt of his capabilities in this harsh world of offshore solo sailing. What will become harder for Sanderson is to keep ahead of third-placed Dominique Wavre Temenos who is only 13 miles behind at 0900 GMT this morning. As the Open 60 class continue their upwind slog to the finish line in Boston only 522 miles away for leader Ecover who is expected to arrive in Boston on Saturday lunchtime, Sanderson's damage could benefit the chasing pack and the podium positions are far from decided.
The 'foot-to-the-floor pace' is obviously taking its toll on the skippers as Britain's Mike Golding acknowledged: "I got myself so knackered that I crashed out for quite a long time! My alarm is set for an hour, but I didn't hear it, which meant I was sleeping through a 100 decibel car alarm for two and a half hours."

Wavre on board Temenos has also had a demanding past couple of days suffering two knock-downs in quick succession. However, the forty-nine year old Swiss skipper has held on and has been handed a 'window of opportunity' to move into second.

The leading three Open 60s are now closer to land than at anytime since they cleared The Lizard nine days ago as they head west into strong headwinds with Ecover leading, 80 miles SW of Sable Island. What is likely, though, is that another race record will soon tumble as the winning Open 60 could take up to two days off the existing transatlantic race record time of 14 days 16 hours 1 minute, set by Yves Parlier ( Cacolac D'Aquitaine) in the 1992 edition of the race.

Meanwhile, in 4th and 5th place, Nick Moloney ( Skandia) and Conrad Humphreys ( Hellomoto) are also showing signs of battle fatigue. Humphreys reported yesterday of a "scary and amazing night" when sheer tiredness resulted in him putting himself to bed in sleep walking mode after having hoisted his largest headsail in a building breeze: "...The next thing I was conscioius of was waking up over two hours later just in my underwear but fully in my sleeping bag, with all my clothes in a pile swilling around in the bilges. I had that dry, nauseous feeling in my mouth and then sheer terror hit - I ran up on deck and saw that Hellomoto was going at 28 knots boat speed with the Code 5 still up...!" In his panic to get the Code 5 down, Humphreys lost an hour hauling the sail back on deck having dropped the majority of it in the sea.

Nick Moloney on Skandia sailed past Humphreys at incredible close quarters (they could see each other!) after having sailing over 2000 miles and now holds a slender 18 mile lead. Equally though, Moloney, reports being physically exhausted after a near-catastrophic flooding on Skandia three nights ago and a knockdown the night before last.

Overnight, three ORMA 60ft multihulls arrived in Boston - Alain Gautier's Foncia (22:05:10 GMT 9d 7h 5m 10s), Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini (01:3647 GMT 9d 12h 36m 47s) and Lalou Roucayrol's Banque Populaire (03:05:27 GMT 9d 14h 5m 27s) - which now only leaves five more ORMA boats out on the race course. Next to arrive should be Italian Giovanni Soldini on board TIM-Progetto Italia who is 148 miles away and expected to arrive tonight along with Philippe Monnet on Sopra Group. Further to go is Yves Parlier's radical catamaran Médiatis Region Aquitaine who is trailing the ORMA class with 646 miles to go.

Racing right at the back of the 32-boat, four class, fleet is Frenchman Roger Langevin on board the 50ft monohull Branec III who is not yet halfway and still has 1440 miles to sail to the finish. This does not phase Langevin who said: "Today I am wearing the clothes of Don Quixote and, again, fighting against the windmill but without much wind..."

Positions 11.00 GMT Today:

	ORMA 60s	Skipper	Lat	Long	Dist	Speed
1	GEANT	DESJOYEAUX Michel			0	13.61
2	SODEBO	COVILLE Thomas			0	13.47
3	GROUPAMA	CAMMAS Franck			0	13.23
4	FONCIA	GAUTIER Alain			0	12.23
5	SERGIO TACCHINI	FAUCONNIER Karine			0	12.29
6	BANQUE POPULAIRE	ROUCAYROL Lalou			0	12.24
7	TIM-PROGETTO ITALIA	SOLDINI Giovani	42 04.84' N	68 04.32' W	123.3	11.9
8	SOPRA GROUP	MONNET Philippe	42 41.92' N	67 51.56' W	138.6	15
9	GITANA XI	LEPEUTREC Fred	43 03.40' N	63 26.72' W	327.4	13.8
10	BANQUE COVEFI	RAVUSSIN Steve	43 16.36' N	59 44.80' W	493.1	7.7
11	MEDIATIS REGION AQUITAINE	PARLIER Yves	42 50.76' N	56 33.00' W	632.6	9.6
ABD	GITANA  X	GUILLEMOT Marc
	IMOCA 60s
1	ECOVER	GOLDING Mike	43 02.64' N	59 18.40' W	515	4.3
2	PINDAR ALPHAGRAPHICS	SANDERSON Mike	43 00.12' N	58 31.16' W	549.5	3.1
3	TEMENOS	WAVRE Dominique	42 46.28' N	58 21.72' W	556.7	7.7
4	SKANDIA	MOLONEY Nick	43 47.48' N	55 44.08' W	668.1	9.8
5	HELLOMOTO	HUMPHREYS Conrad	42 49.64' N	55 16.24' W	689.6	9.1
6	UUDS	LAURENT Herve	42 49.72' N	53 19.52' W	778	7.2
7	PRO-FORM	THIERCELIN Marc	42 48.40' N	53 01.92' W	790.9	10.2
8	VMI	JOSSE Sébastien	44 30.20' N	49 49.48' W	927.3	8.8
9	AUSTRIA ONE	SEDLACEK Norbert	47 10.84' N	46 10.28' W	1086.2	8.1
10	QUIKSILVER EDITION	LIARDET Anne	47 25.48' N	45 33.96' W	1107.8	6.6
11	OBJECTIF 3	HEDRICH Charles	44 14.96' N	43 29.24' W	1191.1	9.5
12	ATLANTICA-CHARENTES MARITIMES	LEIBOVICI Karen	43 11.72' N	43 11.00' W	1212.5	8.9
ABD	VIRBAC	DICK Jean-Pierre
ABD	PRB	RIOU Vincent
ABD	CHEMINEES POUJOULAT-ARMOR LUX	STAMM Bernard
	Multihull 50s
1	TRILOGIC	BRUNEEL Eric	43 08.12' N	52 52.24' W	795.8	4.2
2	GIFI	DEMACHY Dominique	45 20.44' N	48 19.20' W	992.5	10.2
3	GREAT AMERICAN II	WILSON Richard	45 13.20' N	48 07.76' W	1000.3	11.4
4	NOOTKA	BIRCH Mike	45 28.36' N	45 39.24' W	1105	9.8
5	PIR2	HOCHEDE Etienne	47 39.20' N	43 15.96' W	1203.1	14.8
ABD	CREPES WHAOU !	F Y ESCOFIER
	Open 50s
1	ARTFORMS	STONE Kip	44 19.60' N	48 16.68' W	989.1	9.4
2	WELL FARGO-AMERICAN PIONEER	HARRIS Jo	43 56.52' N	47 49.00' W	1007.3	8.4
3	OKAMI	BOUCHACOURT Jacques	47 36.36' N	46 58.84' W	1060.6	7.5
4	BRANEC III	LANGEVIN Roger	51 16.44' N	38 31.64' W	1421.2	8.9