The Transat Race 2004 Plymouth - Boston - Start 31.05.2004 www.thetransat.com - zur Übersicht 10.06.2004 THE TRANSAT: DAGGERBOARD DAMAGE OPENS UP CONTEST FOR THE IMOCA PODIUM... 'One man, one boat, the sea...The Transat established in 1960 as the OSTAR' IN BRIEF: * KIWI SKIPPER MIKE SANDERSON REPORTS BROKEN DAGGERBOARD...THE OPEN 60 PODIUM CONTEST IS FAR FROM OVER... * LATEST ETA FOR BRITAIN'S MIKE GOLDING, LEADING THE OPEN 60 CLASS, IS SATURDAY (12.6.04) LUNCHTIME... * OPEN 60 SKIPPERS ARE SHOWING CLASSIC SIGNS OF BATTLE FATIGUE... * ORMA 60s FONCIA, SERGIO TACCHINI, BANQUE POPULAIRE FINISH IN BOSTON OVERNIGHT, SIX DOWN, FIVE TO GO... * ONLY A MAJOR MISHAP COULD BREAK ERIC BRUNEEL'S UNASSAILABLE LEAD OF 217 MILES IN THE 50FT MULTIHULL CLASS... * SPARE A THOUGHT FOR FRENCH SKIPPER ROGER LANGEVIN WHO IS ONLY APPROACHING THE HALFWAY MARK ON BOARD HIS 50FT MONO BRANEC III Current holder of the Omega 24hr record Michel Desjoyeaux/Geant 440 miles See the official Omega clock showing race time http://www.thetransat.com Mike Sanderson verlor daggerboard Karin Fauconniers 5.in Boston IN DETAIL: Major and disappointing news came from Kiwi skipper, Mike Sanderson, this morning who admitted live on Transat Radio that he had a broken daggerboard on board Pindar AlphaGraphics. The starboard daggerboard was "shattered" during the 45 knots that hit the fleet last Friday night (4.6.04). As soon as the breakage occured, Sanderson tacked onto starboard which enabled him to keep the pace with the leader Mike Golding. But in the last couple of days, Pindar AlphaGraphics was forced to tack back on to port and since then the gap between Sanderson and Golding has been widening. Sanderson is unable to switch the 'boards' over as they are designed to fit the port and starboard daggerboard casings, and the 0900 GMT poll shows Pindar AlphaGraphics trailing Ecover by 36 miles. Sanderson had been putting on an exceptional show in his first solo race and leaves no one in any doubt of his capabilities in this harsh world of offshore solo sailing. What will become harder for Sanderson is to keep ahead of third-placed Dominique Wavre (Temenos) who is only 13 miles behind at 0900 GMT this morning. As the Open 60 class continue their upwind slog to the finish line in Boston only 522 miles away for leader Ecover who is expected to arrive in Boston on Saturday lunchtime, Sanderson's damage could benefit the chasing pack and the podium positions are far from decided. The 'foot-to-the-floor pace' is obviously taking its toll on the skippers as Britain's Mike Golding acknowledged: "I got myself so knackered that I crashed out for quite a long time! My alarm is set for an hour, but I didn't hear it, which meant I was sleeping through a 100 decibel car alarm for two and a half hours." Wavre on board Temenos has also had a demanding past couple of days suffering two knock-downs in quick succession. However, the forty-nine year old Swiss skipper has held on and has been handed a 'window of opportunity' to move into second. The leading three Open 60s are now closer to land than at anytime since they cleared The Lizard nine days ago as they head west into strong headwinds with Ecover leading, 80 miles SW of Sable Island. What is likely, though, is that another race record will soon tumble as the winning Open 60 could take up to two days off the existing transatlantic race record time of 14 days 16 hours 1 minute, set by Yves Parlier (Cacolac D'Aquitaine) in the 1992 edition of the race. Meanwhile, in 4th and 5th place, Nick Moloney (Skandia) and Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto) are also showing signs of battle fatigue. Humphreys reported yesterday of a "scary and amazing night" when sheer tiredness resulted in him putting himself to bed in sleep walking mode after having hoisted his largest headsail in a building breeze: "...The next thing I was conscioius of was waking up over two hours later just in my underwear but fully in my sleeping bag, with all my clothes in a pile swilling around in the bilges. I had that dry, nauseous feeling in my mouth and then sheer terror hit - I ran up on deck and saw that Hellomoto was going at 28 knots boat speed with the Code 5 still up...!" In his panic to get the Code 5 down, Humphreys lost an hour hauling the sail back on deck having dropped the majority of it in the sea. Nick Moloney on Skandia sailed past Humphreys at incredible close quarters (they could see each other!) after having sailing over 2000 miles and now holds a slender 18 mile lead. Equally though, Moloney, reports being physically exhausted after a near-catastrophic flooding on Skandia three nights ago and a knockdown the night before last. Overnight, three ORMA 60ft multihulls arrived in Boston - Alain Gautier's Foncia (22:05:10 GMT 9d 7h 5m 10s), Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini (01:3647 GMT 9d 12h 36m 47s) and Lalou Roucayrol's Banque Populaire (03:05:27 GMT 9d 14h 5m 27s) - which now only leaves five more ORMA boats out on the race course. Next to arrive should be Italian Giovanni Soldini on board TIM-Progetto Italia who is 148 miles away and expected to arrive tonight along with Philippe Monnet on Sopra Group. Further to go is Yves Parlier's radical catamaran Médiatis Region Aquitaine who is trailing the ORMA class with 646 miles to go. Racing right at the back of the 32-boat, four class, fleet is Frenchman Roger Langevin on board the 50ft monohull Branec III who is not yet halfway and still has 1440 miles to sail to the finish. This does not phase Langevin who said: "Today I am wearing the clothes of Don Quixote and, again, fighting against the windmill but without much wind..." 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