Favorite of the Route du Rhum, the French navigator was forced to turn back towards Lorient because the daggerboard of his sailboat was broken.
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AWhen he was racing in the leading trio, Armel Le Cléac’h heard “a crack” at the end of the morning and “noted the breakage of the daggerboard under the bottom of the boat’s hull”, explains his team in a statement. The French navigator of People’s Bank is therefore forced to turn back, the day after the start of the twelfth Route du rhum, and return to the port of Lorient.
“It’s a huge disappointment, that’s for sure. We have been working for months with the whole team (…) We were well prepared, we had a good start to the race. It was going to be thrilling and, in a few minutes, everything collapsed. I am very disappointed for my team and me”, declared the skipper of Banque Populaire who spoke to the journalists after having initially discussed with his team. “It was brutal (…) there was no shock,” he continued.
“The victory will no longer be for me, recognized Le Cléac’h. If we manage to leave in the next 36 hours, we can still hope to get back on the last Ultims (maxi-trimarans that fly on the water), and then try to set a good race time, a good crossing. It remains conditional. We have to + check + the boat and see if we can leave safely, ”he added.
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Armel Le Cléac’h had given up in 2018
According to initial findings, the broken daggerboard also damaged the hull. “We are inspecting this area” (around the drift), detailed Ronan Lucas, director of the Banque Populaire team. “At the moment, we are considering a repair, but we are still in the exact balance sheet to know if we manage to repair in a reasonable time or if we are forced to let go”, he said before specifying : “36 hours seems to be the minimum for the repair. It is difficult to see ourselves ready before Saturday evening to set off again”.
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“We do not explain what happened,” commented Ronan Loas. The sailing conditions were quite acceptable for this type of boat. We will analyze the drift when we get it out of the boat”. Apart from the members of the Banque Populaire team, around thirty people came to applaud the skipper as he descended onto the pontoon at the offshore racing base in Lorient.
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On the ship, about fifteen people checked the condition of the boat. Two divers, one of whom was snorkeling, scoured the central hull for several minutes, lighting up with a searchlight. Coming out of the water, one of the divers said he was optimistic about the possibility of repairs. But his comments were tempered by team principal Ronan Lucas, who said they would meet before making a decision on whether to repair.
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Le Cléac’h, winner of the Vendée Globe 2016-2017, was about ten hours sailing from the coast of Brittany, bound for Guadeloupe, at the time of the damage, according to the race website. In 2018, Le Cléac’h had retired after two days of racing after capsizing. To the Ultim Maxi soundbar People’s Bank XIhe is one of the favorites in the famous solo transatlantic race, with Charles Caudrelier (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild), Francois Gabart (SVR-Lazartigue) and Thomas Coville (Sodebo).