Lying 700 miles from the finish at the time, Fred was sailing downwind, dagger board raised, which minimised the damage to what is a vital appendage for upwind sailing. Fred waited until the daylight hours before checking the board and calling the Gitana Team to discuss necessary repairs before the boat sets out on her delivery passage for Québec on 20th June. The dagger board's crash box (which acts as a fuse in the event of an impact) has broken, the lesser of two evils compared to what happened to Marc Guillemot on Gitana X, whose lowered dagger board snapped clean away on a level with the underside part of the hull.  Yann Marilley and Jean Le Houérou Kérisel will have to wait until Gitana 11 gets in before being in a position to fine tune the early diagnosis and set about making the necessary repairs with the shore crew.For the time being, the end of the race is going to be difficult for Fred who is now without his Solent and for whom the efficiency of the dagger board is severely reduced, all the more so given that part of the course remaining to be covered has to be sailed upwind. 

Originally expected in Thursday night – Friday morning, his technical crew have now pushed the ETA back a few hours.