At 1150h GMT this morning ECOVER, skippered by Mike Golding, broke part of her mast while in the Southern Ocean, some 1000 miles from Cape Town, South Africa. Only six hours earlier Mike Golding had completed the daring rescue of his fellow competitor in the Velux 5 Oceans solo round the world race, Alex Thomson.

Golding confirmed that the mast had broken in two places, the first just above the main spreaders and the second about 1.5m from the top of the mast and that he and Thomson were securing the loose parts of the rig. The mainsail is intact and all the sails are still on board the boat other than the genoa. Golding and Thomson are currently working to getting back under sail with a staysail and a reefed mainsail so that they can begin heading to Cape Town.