Having lost two of their major downwind sails over the weekend, Grant Dalton’s Amer Sports One is now only 20 miles ahead of Illbruck.

One of the sails – a Cuban Fibre Reaching Code 3, blown out in 30-knot breeze – is the one that’s crucial for moderate reaching conditions that lie ahead. The other sail was lost in what Dalton described as a major broach that lay Amer Sports One horizontal for 20 seconds.

“The last 24 hours has been a reality check for this team on what is going to happen to us in the Southern Ocean [on leg two] unless we go back to the basics on how to sail a boat like this in a lot of breeze under spinnaker,” reported Dalton yesterday afternoon. “It has left us with two totally destroyed spinnakers, one of which is mainly somewhere 150 miles behind us, a broken internal halyard and a crew which is now somewhat more receptive to the wise old men onboard telling them what to do”.

All the while, the crew of second placed illbruck, one of the most polished teams in the fleet with their long work up period, have been chipping away the miles. At their present speed, these two yachts are expected into Cape Town at breakfast time on Thursday (25 October).

Position Report, Day 30, 0400hrs GMT

1 AONE

2 ILBK (20 miles behind leader)

3 NEWS (106 miles behind leader)

4 TYCO (388 miles behind leader)

5 AART (499 miles behind leader)

6 TSEB (880 miles behind leader)

7 DJCE (883 miles behind leader)

8 ATOO (922 miles behind leader)