Route du Rhum competitor Dominic Wavre now back on track following daggerboard problems last night 31/10/06

At 0100 hours this morning, Dominique Wavre indicated to his shore crew that he had a daggerboard issue aboard his Open 60 Temenos.

Wavre who’s competing in the Route Du Rhum was just about to tack when the daggerboard dropped down too far in its casing and was caught above the upper block. He was immediately forced to decrease speed in order to remove the pressure from the appendage as much as possible, as it was threatening to damage the hull around the daggerboard casing.

After over three hours of work dismantling and fixing the upper block Wavre was back racing again, making good speed in the downwind conditions.

In 4th place in the IMOCA fleet yesterday evening and 26 miles from the leader Virbac-Paprec, Temenos found herself back down in 6th position, flashed doing 1.9 knots at the 0400 hours ranking and over 55 miles behind the frontrunner.

Making the most of the steady downwind conditions, Temenos should also be able to rack up some good averages. At the 0800 ranking she had regained both her speed and 5th position and was flashed making over 16 knots of instantaneous speed.