THERE was drama in the South Atlantic for Southampton's Mike Golding, when his yacht Team Group 4 narrowly escaped dismasting for the second time.

Team Group 4 was dismasted on the first night of the Vendee Globe Race last November.

Golding restarted the race eight days and four hours after the fleet with a replacement mast.

Since then, the former Berkshire fireman has worked his way from 24th place to his current eighth position and is involved in a mid-Atlantic duel with fellow Briton, Josh Hall.

On Saturday night he called his shore crew to tell them that he had spotted serious chafe damage to the starboard cap shroud - the piece of rigging which holds the mast from falling sideways.

He informed them he was going up the mast - a very dangerous thing to do in daylight, let alone in the dark.

Team Group 4 has a wing mast, so wide in diameter that it is impossible for Golding to wrap his arms or legs round it for support - all he was able to do was to try to hold on to the edge off the sail with one hand.

In order to inspect the damaged shroud, Golding had to then suspend himself on a halyard, dangling 20 metres in the air, out over the open sea.

Golding discovered the damage to be worse that he had feared - only 10 per cent of the original rigging was left to hold up the mast.

It was a miracle that the mast was still standing.

He needed to act quickly, before Team Group 4's mast came crashing down for the second time.

Golding made a jury repair overnight, and then went back up the mast again yesterday in 15 knots of breeze to make the repairs more permanent.

He then tacked the boat back on to starboard and with two reefs in the mainsail and the staysail set, started heading back on course.

Golding rang his shore team and said: "God, that was terrible. I banged my head and got loads more bruises, but I think I've fixed it."

Yesterday, Team Group 4 was sailing north at about 9.5 knots.

Her mast is safe for the time being, but north of the Doldrums the boat will be sailing in hard upwind conditions on starboard tack for about 1,200 miles and that will be the real test of Golding's jury rigging.