The sea does not give gifts. At midday, less than 24 hours after setting sail, Le Cléac’h saw his hopes of victory dashed, noting that the daggerboard of his Banque Populaire sailboat was broken.
“Armel informed us of this breakage which requires him to return to Lorient for us to analyze the situation”, explained Ronan Lucas, director of the Banque Populaire team, specifying that the skipper was “safe”.
Le Cléac’h was expected in Lorient at the end of the evening where his team hopes to repair his sailboat so that he can resume the crossing to Guadeloupe. During the last edition, the winner of the Vendée Globe 2017 had retired after two days of racing after capsizing.
– Caudrelier under pressure –
He was one of the favorites in the race, at the helm of a latest generation Ultim. It is this class of giant sailboats, capable of crossing the Atlantic in seven days, which leads the fleet of boats entered in the race.
At the 5:30 p.m. check-in, Charles Caudrelier (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild), Thomas Coville (Sodebo) and François Gabart (SVR Lazartigue), all aboard flying Ultims, were approaching Cape Finisterre, within the leading group.
Caudrelier, the big favorite in the race, took the lead as soon as the cannon fired in Saint-Malo. But the skipper of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is under threat of a four-hour time penalty for allegedly crossing the start line too early, according to the race committee.
The skipper and his team contest this “stolen start” and asked the race committee to check the position of the boat on the line. A decision is expected on Friday, after further analysis of the situation.
– You break down –
Behind the Ultims, off Brittany, several sailors retired after various damage on Thursday, such as the skipper of the Class 40 monohull “E. Leclerc Ville-La-Grand” Antoine Magré, which ran aground on stones north of the island of Batz.
The DMG Mori team announced for its part the abandonment of the Japanese Kojiro Shiraishi in the morning after the collision of his boat with another skipper shortly after the start.
Sailor Oren Nataf (Rayon Vert) tore the mainsail of his Rhum Multi before giving up. Many other competitors have diverted to the ports of Brittany to try to repair their damaged sailboats.
The Imoca fleet, the monohulls of the Vendée Globe, seem to be coping better with this start to the race. In this class, Arnaud Boissières (La Mie Câline) took the lead, ahead of Benjamin Dutreux (Guyot Environnement) and Eric Bellion (Commeunseulhomme).
After having started their crossing in relatively mild weather conditions, the sailors were preparing to face their first depression with gusts of wind reaching 85 km/h and a swell of more than 4 meters.
