Even the start of this leg proved to be tough. After a changeable start with up to 45 knots of wind in gusts and a first uncomfortable night in the South Atlantic, the Indian Ocean claimed its first victims. Team Malizia had to cut Code Zero free after unintentionally opening a trap lock. This morning, Guyot Environnement - Team Europe was hit even harder.
In second position and travelling well on the back of a large storm depression at around 20 knots, the crew heard two consecutive knocks. An inspection of the boat revealed that the hull bottom was giving way in the central crew area behind the mast bulkhead - an acute alarm sign.
Benjamin Dutreux informed his technical team. Together they came to the conclusion that the sandwich laminate must be broken or at least severely compromised.
Thomas Cadrin, the Technical Director, said: "Given the current position and the distance to the stage finish in Itajaí, it is unfortunately better for the safety of crew and boat to turn back after Cape Town." That's around 600 nautical miles, and the weather forecast for the route is comparatively favourable, because behind the depression that the other teams are "riding" towards Australia, an area of high pressure is forming with light to medium winds blowing from the north-east.
The former "Hugo Boss" is the oldest boat in the fleet
This gives us hope that the surrounding structure will remain intact and the sailors can return safely to Cape Town. Nevertheless, question marks remain as to how severe the damage is and whether the water could break in. Against these worries, all thoughts of the excellent placing up to that point and the loss of points on the important partial leg pale into insignificance.
"Guyot Environnement - Team Europe" is the oldest boat in The Ocean Race fleet. The former "Hugo Boss", used by 11th Hour Racing as a training boat in the meantime, is considered to be particularly tried and tested and less fragile than some of the newer Imocas. Perhaps the crew chose the most southerly course with confidence.
However, the hull is made of sandwich material, with only one thin layer of carbon fibre on the outside and one on the inside. Due to the very high speeds with the new, larger foils, extreme compression loads occur time and again, which have often caused damage.
Alex Thomson, for example, reported literally shattered core material after his demolition at the Vendée Globe 2020/21. This is one of the reasons why Boris Herrmann decided not to use sandwiches throughout the hull of his "Malizia - Seaexplorer" and instead had the hull laminated and tempered from a monolithic carbon fibre composite.
We will keep you informed about the further progress:
