Whitbread Boats Run Into Trouble

Its mast down, the all-woman crew of EF Education was adrift in the Southern Ocean on Monday, 1,200 nautical miles from land in the Whitbread Round the World Race. The boat, sister ship to race leader EF Language, had been limping along under reduced sail for nine days after the main support on one side of the 85-foot mast stripped its turnbuckle threads.

French skipper Christine Guillou had hoped to reach Ushuaia, Argentina, at the tip of South America to make repairs, then continue on Leg 5 around Cape Horn. But early Monday, with the wind at 35 knots, the mast gave way about 20 feet up and fell over one side.

It was questionable whether enough was left standing to set a modified sail plan--as Britain’s Silk Cut, which lost half of its mast a week earlier, was doing.

Also in trouble was the Baltimore entry Chessie, whose auxiliary motor failed.