Michel Desjoyeaux is fine and the only thing he could see that was broken was his leeward outrigger (carbon tube which holds the mast laterally). The mast is still in place but the solo sailor can no longer tack, due to the risk of the tube dropping into the water. For the time being Foncia is making towards the finish line off Port la Forêt without assistance and the skipper has opted to sail slightly upwind of the direct course in order to retain some room for manoeuvre should the wind change. He should finish under these conditions around 0300 UTC...

He will be preceded by Kito de Pavant, Groupe Bel  who is expected in around 0200 UTC: the Mediterranean skipper will thus take second place behind Loïck Peyron, with just 3 hours separating them after fourteen and half days of racing.

Interview de Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty)

"Well! Beautiful finish; nocturnal and cold... A very interesting race on several levels: first of all because we all needed to do a single-handed transatlantic race on these boats. I really wanted to sail in solo configuration again: I hadn't done that since the first Transat Jacques Vabre in 1993! Furthermore, it's confirmation that these monohulls are physical but when you manage them well, you come out of it alright. You mustn’t let events get the better of you... Issues can crop up very quickly: it happened to Michel Desjoyeaux just after my arrival as he hit a little fishing boat... And me, last night, I very nearly messed up! You constantly have to think about what’s going to happen and there’s a lot to mull over.

The battle promises to be intense over the coming months as the level of the sailors has really gone up a notch! There’s not a single one of them that's prepared to ease off the pace… that includes me! When you're all alone, it’s really a lot more complicated and there's a lot of work involved. The first tack off Bahia, took me a good half hour... What that means is that you mustn’t stand idle as the time onboard passes quickly at the end of the day since there is always something that needs doing. These boats are fairly hard to drive; they're passionate and pretty speedy. Gitana Eighty is a very good boat, that’s been well prepared and when you see that its sistership in the Barcelona World Race, Paprec-Virbac, is leading, that shows what great potential it has! "

Translation KJ