8.00am
Disaster hit the all-woman crew in the round-the-world yacht race when their mast collapsed in the North Atlantic Ocean this morning.
Amer Sports Too, which has New Zealanders Bridget Suckling and Keryn Henderson among the crew, lost the top half of its mast about 3.45am (NZ time).
No one was hurt and
campaign spokesman, Warren Douglas, said the yacht was not in danger.
The crew was jury-rigging the mast to take a smaller sail and their plan was to head towards St John in Canada.
"The mast broke just above the second spreader so they have got 10m or 12m left," Mr Douglas said.
The yacht would then be shipped to La Rochelle where the eighth leg of the race from La Rochelle to Goteborg in Germany was due to start on May 25. A spare mast would be shipped from England.
At the last position report Amer Sport Too was trailing the field about 112 nautical miles behind illbruck, which is overall race leader after six legs and which is leading leg seven from Assa Abloy and Tyco.
Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One, the other boat in the two-boat Nautor Challenge campaign, was in sixth place, 42 miles behind illbruck.
All eight yachts in the race had been battling high winds as they headed across the North Atlantic to the finish of leg seven in La Rochelle.
However, early today the wind had dropped to a 12-knot southwesterly when Amer Sports Too lost its mast.
"They were wailing under spinnaker in about 12 knots of sou-westerly breeze. There was a bang and it went. It sounds as though it just folded over."
The broken mast was recovered before it could damage the hull.
Within minutes the crew began rigging a new backstay and forestay to stabilise the mast. New halyards were also being rigged to hoist a smaller sail up the shortened mast.
The yacht had not lost communications and quickly reassured its campaign headquarters and race headquarters no one had been hurt and the yacht was not in danger.
- NZPA
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