At the moment, hardly a day seems to go by at the Vendée without bad news from the field. After Kito de Pavant and Louis Burton retired last week after collisions with fishing boats and Samantha Davies lost her rig on Friday, Jérémie Beyou was hit today.
"Early yesterday evening, I heard a loud noise, then the boat shot into the wind and leaned about ten degrees to one side," says the Frenchman, describing what happened. The keel hydraulics were defective and the keel swung freely back and forth in the hull. The hydraulic cylinder, which can swivel the annex about 40 degrees to windward, had burst. Beyou then secured the keel shaft with ropes so that it wouldn't hit too hard in rough seas and possibly damage the hull.
It is now sailing at only 5 to 6 knots to the port of Mindelo on the Cape Verde Islands to check whether a repair is possible. However, this is unlikely to be the case as, according to the team, the keel fin seal on the hull breach has also been damaged and some water is seeping in.
"The hydraulics are designed for loads of up to 120 tonnes, but when sailing with the boat, the maximum load should be 40 tonnes," says the team, who cannot explain the failure, especially as the part was serviced again before the start.
Beyou had already had to retire from the last Vendée in 2004 due to a technical defect in the rig.
There were also some changes at the front of the field at the weekend. After Armel Le Cléac'h ("Banque Populaire") took the lead from François Gabart ("Macif"), Jean-Pierre Dick with his "Paprec Virbac 3" is in third place for the first time, pushing the strongly sailing Swiss Bernard Stamm into fourth place. The field has now passed the Cape Verde Islands and is approaching the equator.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
