Field clears a little for Ellen

Problems for Ecover and Sill, disaster for Conrad Humphreys

See page two for the latest update from Miranda Merron

Drama overnight in the Open 60 fleet with Sill pulling into Madeira to effect repairs to a torn mainsail and Ecover hanging in there in second place but with a broken daggerboard. At present it is very lively sailing in big breeze but now with the wind just astern of the beam. This is making for some high speed passages with Ellen averaging 18 knots over the last four hours.

The port daggerboard broke on Ecover more than 24 hours ago, but Golding kept it quiet for tactical reasons. He spent sometime the night before last trying to fix the board but was unable to. It appears the daggerboard may have simply given up the ghost because of the extreme pounding it has taken over the last few days, rather than from a collision.

Now that the conditions look set to be more downwind orientated until the finish this is likely to be less of a problem and the figures speak for themselves - despite the breakage Golding is only six miles astern of Kingfisher. Also, marginally further south, and further away from the Azores high Ecover should be getting better pressure than Kingfisher.

Similarly Sill cannot be discounted. She is heading for Madeira - this is not that far from Sill's original course, although it is much longer route to Guadeloupe than the just-south of rhum line course which Kingfisher and Ecover are taking. However one only has to hark back to the Vendee Globe where skipper Roland Jourdain was a long way behind at Cape Horn and did a dramatic job catching up.

The worst news is that young British potential Vendee Globe skipper Conrad Humphreys has dismasted. Humphreys informed race HQ about his situation at 0100 this morning.

Positions 14/11/02 07:00:00 GMT
Pos	Boat name	Skipper	Lat	Long	DTF	SOG	COG
60ft tris
1	Biscuits La Trinitaine - Ethypharm	Marc Guillemot	42 05.00' N	18 30.20' W	2749.2	20.8	243
2	TechnoMarine	Steve Ravussin	43 36.72' N	17 29.04' W	2793.7	14	226
3	Sodebo	Thomas Coville	40 38.76' N	16 38.16' W	2796.9	7.1	207
4	Banque Populaire	Lalou Roucayrol	44 52.76' N	18 27.60' W	2818.6	8.9	225
5	Foncia	Alain Gautier	39 24.20' N	14 37.72' W	2861.6	7	189
6	Sergio Tacchini	Karine Fauconnier	42 04.52' N	14 50.64' W	2901.4	9.5	203
7	Géant	Michel Desjoyeaux	41 29.72' N	14 28.24' W	2906	10.7	202
8	Bonduelle	Jean Le Cam	48 16.68' N	4 35.24' W	3424.9	0	0
9	Belgacom	Jean-Luc Nélias	47 53.88' N	3 58.62' W	3442.9	0	0
10	Bayer CropSciences	Frederic Le Peutrec	47 35.28' N	3 01.50' W	3475.8	0.1	270
ABD	Groupama	Franck Cammas
ABD	Rexona Men	Yvan Bourgnon
ABD	TIM	Giovanni Soldini
ABD	Gitana X	Lionel Lemonchois
ABD	Sopra Group	Philippe Monnet
ABD	Eure&Loir-Lorénove	Francis Joyon
ABD	Banque Covefi	Bertrand deBroc
ABD	Fujifilm	Loick Peyron
Open 60s
1	Kingfisher	Ellen McArthur	40 49.64' N	20 24.68' W	2640.9	14.7	210
2	Ecover	Mike Golding	40 26.00' N	20 03.96' W	2646.3	16	207
3	Arcelor-Dunkerque	Joé Seten	43 26.92' N	18 15.04' W	2791.5	12.8	210
4	Sill	Roland Jourdain	38 56.56' N	15 57.24' W	2792	15	183
5	60ème Sud	Didier Munduteguy	42 38.48' N	16 24.20' W	2848.1	11.4	217
6	Un Univers de Services	Miranda Merron	44 03.12' N	15 54.12' W	2888.9	8.3	216
7	L'Heautontimoroumenos	Antoine Koch	42 27.36' N	14 19.32' W	2930.7	6.6	198
8	Garnier Belgium	Patrick De Radiguès	40 57.92' N	11 33.48' W	3022.7	6.9	155
9	Tir Groupé-Montres Yéma	Mike Birch	42 10.72' N	10 46.24' W	3076.2	6	166
10	Ciments St Laurent-Ocean	Georges Leblanc	43 38.80' N	9 22.28' W	3159.2	1.5	262
ABD	Virbac	Jean Pierre Dick
NL	Dinan Pays d'Entreprises	Frédéric Lescot
ABD	VMI	Sébastien Josse
ABD	La Rage de Vivre	Loïck Pochet
NL	Leasecom	Elie Canivenc
ABD	Temenos	Dominique Wavre
NL	Millimages-Gédéon	Patrick Favre
Class 1 monos
1	Ville de Dinard	Bruno Reibel	45 51.68' N	11 33.44' W	3110.2	5.3	223
ABD	Un Autre Regard Ensemble pour l'UNHCR	Nicolas  Peitrequin
Class 2 monos
1	Ashfield Healthcare	Nick Moloney	44 57.20' N	16 24.56' W	2900	10.4	224
2	Florys	Luc Coquelin	44 06.64' N	14 32.08' W	2955.6	8.7	217
3	Branec III	Roger Langevin	46 58.00' N	15 13.64' W	2993.1	7.9	232
4	Mille Visages	Hervé Vachée	42 53.40' N	12 48.32' W	3002.5	6.6	212
5	Laiterie St Malo	Clément Surtel	46 42.88' N	13 14.64' W	3062.5	7.8	220
6	Adecco Etoile Horizon	Bob Escoffier	43 42.48' N	11 29.12' W	3072.3	5.7	205
7	Défi Vendéen	J. F. Durand	46 30.18' N	1 47.52' W	3511.4	0	0
ABD	Apic A3S	Christophe Huchet
ABD	République Dominicaine	Yannick Bestaven
Class 3 monos
1	Storagetek	Regis Guillemot	44 43.02' N	15 53.64' W	2910.6	9.2	223
2	Grain de Soleil	Etienne Svilarich	48 03.72' N	14 05.56' W	3067.1	6.3	220
3	Passion Entreprendre	Jérôme Thiriez	45 47.12' N	12 43.28' W	3068.1	5.6	231
4	Hellomoto	Conrad Humphreys	47 21.30' N	9 19.26' W	3228.8	4.8	73
5	Fantasy-Forest	Alain Grinda	48 43.14' N	3 57.96' W	3455.6	0	0
Class 2 multihulls
1	Crepes Whaou!	F. Y. Escofier	41 06.72' N	18 03.56' W	2746	12.7	221
2	Yachting-casino.com	Anne Cazeneuve	42 42.78' N	15 33.36' W	2882.3	7.9	198
3	Vaincre la mucoviscidose	Hervé Cleris	41 23.52' N	12 34.86' W	2982.9	11.6	187
4	Archipel Guadeloupe	Claude Thelier	39 52.44' N	10 59.20' W	3031.3	6.6	173
5	Lehning-Lapeyre-Blanchet-Gourbeyre	P.Y. Guennec	43 56.16' N	8 55.96' W	3182.2	4.2	171
ABD	E-Sat Tri Sélectif	Pascal Quintin
ABD	Groupe France Epargne	Patrick Morvan
ABD	Chaleur Fioul Elan	Didier Levillain