The second headboard car failure occurred late yesterday evening, with Gunnar Krantz’s SEB suffering from the same fate that befell djuice two days earlier.

The lime green yacht sailed for five hours under jib alone while the crew effected a jury repair. “At 2100 GMT the car made of machined aluminium split and thus forcing us to drop the mainsail. The mainsail was down until 0200 GMT,” reported skipper Gunnar Krantz. “During that period we made slower progress with only the jib (foresail) up. Gusts of wind, 38 knots, made the repairs difficult to complete. At the same time we approached a front with a big wind shift and had to tack over to starboard. We are now continuing with a reefed main lashed to the mast. Unsafe situation when we cannot hoist or drop the main without sending somebody up the mast”.

SEB are currently sixth overall. The leading five yachts are now split into two distinct groups. Tyco, ASSA ABLOY and Team News Corp, pursued by Amer Sport Too, remain in the west while Amer Sports One and illbruck duel in the east, with the wounded djuice and SEB following their track.

Tyco skipper Kevin Shoebridge explained the tactics. “The tricky decision last night was how far to go into the front and what wind direction to wait for before tacking. This will obviously have some bearing on positions today. Illbruck was the first to tack as soon as the front approached, we tacked nearly an hour later. The view is a little different this morning with ASSA ABLOY one mile to leeward and Team News Corp a few miles back on our starboard quarter. Our old running mates illbruck and Dalts (Amer Sports One) are 20 miles to leeward. Interesting times once again”. From Amer Sports One, Grant Dalton believes the fleet will congregate again once more before splitting to tackle the doldrums. “The whole fleet are now aiming for Madeira and we will (the fleet) sort it out after that,” said Dalton.

Life has taken a turn for better onboard with boat and crews drying, tidying and repairing after four days of upwind sailing. “We have come through the headwinds now, we’re now reaching finally. At the moment we have ten knots (of breeze) from the west. The barometer (barometric pressure) in the nav (navigation) station is going up and the sun is coming out. These boats aren’t set up for comfort bashing to windward. It’s been difficult to cook and difficult to want to eat and difficult sleep. The guys have stood up well. We’ll be able to tidy the boat up now, it looks like a bombsite at the moment,” added Dalton.