New Zealand yachtsman Graham Dalton will have to make an emergency stopover after breaking his boom on leg four of the Around Alone yacht race.
The boom on his boat, Hexagon, snapped 900 nautical miles from Cape Horn during the Tauranga to Salvador segment of the around-the-world race.
He'd been inthird position when attempting a gybe, only to see the boom snap.
Dalton immediately dropped the mainsail and secured the broken boom as best as possible in darkness.
Despite losing use of the mainsail, Hexagon is still making good progress at 16 knots in 40-knot winds.
Using his satellite phone, Dalton has arranged to make an emergency stopover at Cape Horn, where a carbon-fibre sleeve being built in New Zealand will be riveted and glued on to the existing boom to pull it back together.
"Our aim is to effect the repair in under 12 hours," his shore manager Richard Bearda said yesterday.
"We know we can fix the boom, but our biggest concern is getting the glue to dry, as conditions out there are very cold and wet."
Dalton, who was also having problems recharging the batteries on his boat, was not the only entrant to encounter difficulties on the fourth leg.
American skipper Bruce Schwab, who was in fifth place, reported that his boat Ocean Planet was swamped by a wave, breaking the 12m boom.
Schwab hopes supplies can be sent to the Falklands, where he intends heading to undertake repairs.
