Alex Thomson was expecting to arrive back at the start of the Vendée Globe in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, early this morning after nursing the six-foot crack in the hull of Hugo Boss that he discovered on Monday evening.

The black carbon fibre trailing behind his leaking vessel told the tale of his misery and the measure of the impact that may have knocked him out of this 26,000-mile race only 300 miles in.

Thomson and his waiting shore crew, who worked day and night to get Hugo Boss ready after she was struck broadside on by a French fishing boat three weeks before the start, have seven days to fix her this time. The large crack is on the port side of the hull, the opposite side to the emergency repairs that were needed.

Vendée rules allow skippers to return to Les Sables only for repairs and they have ten days from the start — midday on Wednesday, November 19 — to restart. But given that Thomson said the crack is flexing and letting in water each time Hugo Boss hits a wave, whether repairs can make her safe for another pummelling in the Bay of Biscay, let alone a month in the Southern Ocean, must be doubtful. Thomson was making 9.5 knots downwind yesterday evening but had not risked the power of the spinnaker and was using a headsail instead.

“I think I hit something because it’s very localised and the outer skin has stripped off and there is six feet of carbon skin trailing out behind boat,” Thomson said. “I just don’t know what to say, I’m so gutted. I did hear a big thud, I could have come off a wave and landed on something.

“I had a few problems from the start with instruments not working and the night before I had a leak in the windward ballast tank. I pumped out 1,500 litres of water, so when I saw water again I immediately thought there was another leak in the other tank. It was only about 20 litres but as I was pumping, I noticed it coming in.”

Thomson, 34, did not play up the weather’s part and said he was through the worst of it by Monday night. “I’ve seen much, much worse in the Barcelona,” he said. “The wind had died to 25 to 30 knots when it happened and the worst I’ve seen is 42. The sea was still quite horrendous, so I couldn’t fully power up. I was really happy with where I was.”

It was not the ultimate storm, more plus ça change in the Bay of Biscay, but it was bad enough for some of the Vendée fleet. Yesterday morning a third French skipper witnessed the terrifying spectacle of his boat dismasting. Marc Thiercelin on DCNS, the newest in the fleet after launching in May, dismasted at 6.30. That meant nine yachts have been halted out of the 30 that started. But two have restarted, with Michel Desjoyeaux, the favourite, heading back out at 5.30am on Foncia after fixing electrics in about five hours.

The seas are always big where the Atlantic meets the shallows of the continental shelf. The fleet passed Cape Finistere and Costa da Morte (the Death Coast), so-called because of the number of the wrecks, without more losses.

The closest comparison in Vendée history is the 1992-93 race, when six of the 14 skippers turned back for repairs and Nigel Burgess, the British skipper, was lost overboard and found dead on the northwest coast of Spain.

If Monday was about survival, yesterday was about the six French boats taking their chance to open a slight gap of 20 miles as the wind died behind them and the boats dived south into a high-pressure system. Mike Golding, on Ecover 3, was the best-placed Briton, in eighth, 50 miles behind.

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