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BT Global Challenge winner Conrad Humphreys recounts the dismasting of his Open 40 in the Route du Rhum

"For these people, the Route du Rhum holds a special place. At the Hotel Vauban where I slept for 13 hours, the walls are adorned with pictures of the owner, Noel's heroes. Eric Taberly, Oliver de Kersauzon, Raphael Dinelli, Thomas Coville, Yves Parlier, all previous Rhum sailors. Noel took me over to a corner of the hotel and showed me a chart of the north Atlantic where he plotted the daily positions of the fleet and with a smile erased those that had abandoned. He looked at me and put a cross through Hellomoto; we had just become the 19th boat to be erased from his chart.

"I felt crushed. Whilst Camaret is a beautiful place situated to the south of Brest, it was not my plan to be here. My mind raced back to the night when I lost my mast just 48 hours previously and whether there was something more I could have done to prevent it. Was I pushing too hard ? Trying too hard to gain back those miles lost on the first day when I stopped in Roscoff to make some repairs? Should I have taken the mainsail down and slowed the boat down as we slammed over each crest? Questions that are too late to answer now. At the time I felt in control and was confident that the boat and I were not too pressed. With the mast now at the bottom of the Bay of Biscay maybe I was wrong.

"This morning I took a walk up onto the tip of the peninsula and looked out into the west Atlantic. Whilst the remainder of the fleet power their way to Guadeloupe I wish I was still with them. I have never felt such a pull towards the ocean. This race has changed my outlook on France and the French passion for single-handed sailors. I will be back next year with a new boat and race the Transat Jacque Vabre and continue my course to the Vendée Globe in 2004."