Silk Cut, the only British yacht in the Whitbread Round the World Race, was effectively dismasted yesterday morning when her mast suddenly snapped, leaving a stump about one-third of its original height.
This has effectively ended the boat's chances of winning the race and presents Lawrie Smith and his crew with a large problem simply to reach land safely from their position 2,000 miles west of Cape Horn. They are nearly 4,000 miles from the Brazilian port of Sao Sebastiao, where this leg finishes and where major repairs can be made.
Silk Cut was running steadily with a masthead spinnaker in 2830 knots of wind when, according to a message from Smith, "there was a bang out of nowhere".
He added: "The guys on deck looked up and saw the mast break above the second spreaders. The surprising thing was that the break occurred when nothing was really happening. We'd had the same rig up for several hours in a moderating breeze.
"The guys have recovered the broken section and sails from the water and are busy building a jury rig. Luckily, the original spar is still standing to the second spreader. Very fortunately no one was hurt." He added that the boat's systems were all intact.
"We currently intend to sail under jury rig to Ushuia in the Beagle Channel just in side Cape Horn, pick up diesel and motor north, perhaps all the way to Sao Sebastiao to step the new rig."
Should they do this, Silk Cut will be deemed to have retired from this leg, yet she would receive points for ninth place - only nine of the 10 starting boats are still running - and retain a mathematical outside chance of winning the race, though this would be possible only if the current leaders all did badly on all the remaining legs.
The boats are nearing the most hazardous part of the race, the tip of Cape Horn, where there is always the danger of small icebergs. EF Language's crew spotted one which was a mile long and 100 feet high, but there is less danger from one of these than from "growlers", chunks of ice about the size of a family car which are almost submerged and therefore virtually invisible.
Earlier yesterday Silk Cut, which had led the race the previous day, struck some floating ice on the starboard side forward of the mast, leaving a gash six feet long and an inch across in the outer skin of the hull.
Despite the ice and snow, the leaders are making very high speed. In the 24 hours to noon yesterday, five boats achieved more than 420 miles. EF Language was the fastest with 436, Innovation Kvaerner next with 430. Toshiba achieved 424.4, Merit Cup 424.2 and Swedish Match 422.3.
EF Language was 15 miles in front of Swedish Match, with Merit Cup 45 miles behind in third place. By midnight, EF Language had covered 447.6 miles and was on track to beat Silk Cut's world record of 499.1.
Whitbread Round The World Race - Fifth leg: 1 EF Language (Swe) 3,877.2 miles to finish; 2 Swedish Match (Swe) 29.2 miles behind leader; 3 Merit Cup (Mon) at 47.1; 4 Toshiba (USA) at 48.3; 5 Innovation Kvaerner (Nor) at 99.2, 6 Chessie Racing (USA) at 123.9; 7 Silk Cut (Brit) at 155.5; 8 Brunel-Sunergy (Ned) at 168.1; 9 EF Education (Swe) at 780.5.
