YVAN BOURGNON'S REXONA MEN CAPSIZES / FUJIFILM’s PONTOON BREAKS THEN DISMASTS / TEMEONOS ABANDONS AFTER FIERCE NIGHT

Rexona Men - going, going...it went...

At 06.10 GMT Yvan Bourgnon's 60' trimaran Rexona Men capsized in the North Atlantic off the Spanish coast. At the 03.00 GMT position report Bourgnon was 215 miles west of Vigo.

Bourgnon was sailing without the main sail and only the jib up. The wind was at the incredible speed of 75 knots and Bourgnon was inside the boat in communication with his router. This is when an even stronger gust, estimated at more than 80 knots, lifted the boat and turned it over. He immediately set off the distress beacon and contacted his shore crew by the Iridium telephone.

Yvan Bourgnon has decided to stay onboard, he is well and is in control of the situation. He has 10 days of food supply, and is not asking for rescue.

Bourgnon set off the Inmarsat B+ beacon (which enables the locating of an overturned boat). His shore crew is organising the rescue services.

Race favorite Fujifilm is out

No sooner had Fujifilm finished announcing that its starboard pontoon was broken between the crossbeams, its mast came down. Loick said in a live radio broadcast this morning that it was a complete white out. At 0900 hours he was fully focused on trying to save his mast which he has now sadly lost. He is currently heading into a port in Portugal.

While he was sailing under bare poles on a starboard tack in very heavy seas and 45 knots of wind, Loïck Peyron noticed that Fujifilm's starboard float was broken in two, between the two crossbeams. "I noticed it half an hour ago" Peyron commented at 10:30 French time, "but I think it happened a few hours ago". Peyron was trying all he could to save his new trimaran before his second blow.

Disappointed, Loïck Peyron has only one thought in mind for the moment : "I have to bring my baby back home with the least damage possible, and in order to do so, I have a big day ahead of me.”

And yet another dismasting – this time the victim is Jean Pierre Dick aboard Virbac. This morning at around 200 nautical miles North West of la Coruña the mast of Virbac slipped to the bottom of the sea. He would have been sailing in similar conditions to those of Rexona Men – massive winds and huge seas. Fortunately the skipper is safe. He contacted Race HQ at 0730 GMT.

At 00H30 GMT, the Swiss skipper Dominique Wavre on Temenos (IMOCA 60' monohull) announced his abandon to the Race Committee. His jib exploded to bits and pieces. It is more than 300 miles to the Spanish coast and Wavre decided it will be too late to get back in the game. The disappointed Swiss does not want to continue without this important sail. "I entered this course with ambitions and with the will to battle". This is Wavre's first abandon in his entire sailing career.

The night had been very rough on the entire fleet, stuck between systems, constantly shifting wind and squalls up to 50/55 knots. The competitors have eagerly been waiting for a wind shift to the north-west, easing the tension of constantly banging against the wind, and offering a more direct course to the Azores. The 07.00 GMT position report indicated that the boats further west have already got the shift, and will start to accelerate.

Mike Golding from the UK (Ecover) has taken the lead of the monohull fleet, although Sill (2nd) is on a more southern latitude heading towards west. Kingfisher (3rd) was the fastest monohull at 07.00 GMT, doing 14 knots.

Thomas Coville Sodebo is now firmly (for the time being) in first place of the multihulls,

The small class 2 trimaran Archipel Guadeloupe (Claude Thélier) is continuing his brave route diving south, and is the most southerly boat in the fleet.

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