MacArthur boat damaged

Ellen MacArthur’s solo round-the-world record attempt was under threat last night after her boat suffered damage.

The 28-year-old faces a dangerous climb up her mast to repair her mainsail after noticing problems this morning.

MacArthur, whose lead has been cut to two days and 11 hours due to light winds, will turn back south to fix the problem and may lose her lead by the time she reaches the Equator. “I am going up with the objective of checking the mainsail track at both the second and first reef points, if I can. Wind is decreasing so I just want to go for it,” she said on her website, www.teamellen.com.