TWO Hampshire round the world sailors have had their Vendée Globve campaigns thrown into jeopardy by sail problems.

Both Jonny Malbon and Dee Caffari have got potentially race-ending problems with their mainsails which have started delaminating.

Southampton’s Malbon reported a tear in Artemis II’s sail of around a metre, while Caffari has been forced to repair her sail by painting it with Epoxy resin.

Malbon, currently in 12th, said the problem had left him “tired and despondent”.

“It is just the ongoing battle with the mainsail,” he said.

“Yesterday I dropped it down to four reefs to patch a small hole to try and pre-empt any further damage, when I was down below for about 20 minutes cutting some Kevlar, with the reef tucked in and safe.

“When I came back on deck there was a vertical tear about a metre long, which is really bad news because it is the taffeta which is ripped and that is pretty much the only thing which holding the sail together when it is up.

“I managed to get a big patch on it and then another patch on the patch, and then a few hours I will be gybing, and so then I will be able to do the same on the port side, which is the really badly damaged side.”

Caffari, further up the fleet in ninth, said: “The whole damaged area (of the mainsail) is against a lazy jack and rubbing against it is probably doing more damage but I will find out more in daylight tomorrow.

“It is annoying because everything else on the boat is fine but I am so anxious about my mainsail all the time and it is stopping me pushing the boat a bit and affecting how I sail. I am hugely worried about it.

“I have half way around the world to go to keep it together. It is something in the lamination process and just one of those things.

“I have to keep on doing what I'm doing until I get back.

“It won't look pretty but I have to work at keeping it together.”