Briton Joe Lacey, has diverted to Gijón for a technical pit stop.
Lacey (Earlybird Racing 963) was bang on the pace and had been making the exact same boat speed (over 6 knots) as the top placed skipper in the fleet and favourite for the series win, Italian Ambrogio Beccaria (Geomag 943).
However, over the course of Monday afternoon, the situation became rather tricky for Joe who got in touch with the support boat (JPK 38 Yemanja) to alert them to his energy problems aboard his new Maxi 6.50.
The British skipper is planning a pit stop in Gijón, where he hopes to be able to effect repairs and head back out onto the racetrack to complete this first leg to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
On a positive note, he is making over 10 knots en route to northern Spain and clearly has no intention of giving up.
On the third day of racing, the 87 sailors in the Mini-Transat La Boulangère are all still at sea, led this evening by Axel Tréhin (prototype) and Ambrogio Beccaria (production).
Monday evening (18:00 UTC), Axel Tréhin (945) is still leading the prototypes, followed by François Jambou (865) and Marie Gendron (930).
Among the production boats, the battle is raging between the Pogo 3, with a slight advantage going to Ambrogio Beccaria (943), who is currently outpacing Félix De Navacelle (916), Lauris Noslier (893), Pierre Le Roy (925), Benjamin Ferré (902) and Sébastien Gueho (909).
The sailors with the production scow bows are still very much in the game though, including Paul Cloarec (951)and Keni Piperol (956).
