At one o'clock this morning, Groupama's mainsial headboard broke.
Groupama anchored Though the wind has picked up a little bit during the night, no boat has yet passed Tarifa. Groupama, Belgacom, Bayer and Foncia are still on the Atlantic side, sailing uwpwind to East.
Last night, Groupama (Franck Cammas) had stretched out her lead. At 9 p.m last night, Belgacom (Jean-Luc Nelias) was lying 20 miles behind the leader. Yvan Bourgnon's Bayer was 30 miles behind and Foncia-Kingfisher of Alain Gautier was 34 miles behind.
At one o'clock this morning, Groupama's mainsial headboard broke. Franck Cammas and his crew have had to stop in a place sheltered from the wind near Tarifa (Spain) in order to repair it. At 5:20 a.m this morning, Groupama was still anchored: "At about 1 a.m, the mainsail's head broke. We decided to anchor neat Tarifa in a sheltered place. Our aim is to try to fix it ourselves. We anchored at 1:58 a.m GMT and we hope to finish the repair and to leave again as soon as possible" said Cammas.
Behind, Belgacom and Bayer were sailing close to the Spanish coast while Foncia was closer to Marocco.
This morning Belgacom in the lead for the first time of the race, ahead of Groupama, Bayer and Foncia-Kingfisher.