The question that swirled around Valencia Today is to know if +39 Challenge can recover enough to continue.

Nightmare became reality for the Italian Challenge yesterday when their newly installed, €500,000 carbon fibre mast broke in three pieces and crashed to the deck.

A dismasting is bad news at any stage, but for Iain Percy's team which struggled with financial issues for months this couldn't have come at a worse time and many commentators suggested that it could be the end of the campaign.

"We may race the final day with the old mast but what happens now is really uncertain as it'll be subject to protest and redress". Iain Percy said after the race. "I guess the first thing is to sort the mess out with the equipment and then sort the mess out with all the official stuff".

During the 30e America's Cup, the final straw for Marc Pajot's Fast Challenge Swiss team came when their radical, twin-keel and twin-rudder Fast 2000 was dismasted.

While the “top guns” have a stock of new tubes, Percy's team has just one new mast and their old one. Could this be used?

"Not really, It's half the speed and we took quite a lot of equipment out of it when we fitted the new mast, instrument wands, electronics etc.," he said.

After both the Defender and Challenger of Record have agreed to an amendment of the Protocol govering the 32nd America's Cup and the interpretation of it, the team members have recovered the broken spar and all the sails and the shore team went back to work.

Another long night with the lights switched on in the shipyard and in the sail loft. The damage has been assessed, the Swedish mast builder Marstrom has been contacted, the sails are being repaired, already thinking about the tuning of the old profile to be used racing.

"We are taking every possibility into account", explained today coach Roberto Ferrarese. "We are working on different levels, on the technical side; with the Jury, for the protest against the German team and the redress request".

"There are issues concerning the damage", he added. "As for the mast, all roads are open: repairing it, which costs time and human resources, to the use of using another spar, if the rules allow us to do so. No decision has been taken yet."

"We will go ahead, ours is a team of fighters, of passionate people", concluded the +39 Challenge. "We wish to thank also all the other AC. As for now the sure thing is that we will be racing tomorrow."