Italian Beccaria leads Class40 with 115 miles to Lorient after tough first night, which saw the dismasting of Crédit Mutuel off Guernsey.
The leading Class40, Alla Grande-PIRELLI, sailed by Italian Ambrogio Beccaria and French co-skipper Nicolas Andrieu lead the 40 boat Transat Jacques Vabre fleet by nearly five miles as they pass 10 miles offshore of Roscoff at 10:00hrs Monday morning.
Britons Brian Thompson and Alister Richardson on Tquila are 13th .
And Germany’s young rookie duo Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink on Sign For Com are 20th.
The leading boat should stop into Lorient at around midnight.
It was a very difficult night for the 40 footers, with very gusty winds and big, unruly seas especially through the Channel Islands, explaining in part the loss of the rig on Crédit Mutuel, one of the pre-race favourites.
Disappointed co-skippers Ian Lipinski and Antoine Carpentier arrived safely into Cherbourg around 08:00hrs UTC after dismasting in the Channel Islands around 00:21hrs this Monday morning.
Following a structural problem with their boat Dékuple, following a collision with an UFO (unidentified floating object), William Mathelin-Moreaux and Pietro Luciani have diverted towards Cherbourg.
Hervé Jean-Marie and Jean-Yves Aglaé, on board Martinique Tchalian, have a Starboard rudder problem and are diverting towards Guernsey in order to take shelter to repair.