End of the match for Yannick Bestaven and Julien Pulvé. Stopover in Vigo (Spain) to repair his torn mainsail, the winner of the last Vendée Globe and his teammate discovered a significant technical problem, namely the breakage of a structural partition of their Maître CoQ monohull. Impossible to continue under these conditions. “One of the structural partitions, in the front hold, broke in compression, following the high speeds and repeated impacts after passing Ouessant. We recorded speeds of 25 knots at 70° to the wind, in 4 to 5 meter seas! The boat was severely tested, explains Bestaven. Even with the best will, repairing the partition will take time and, what’s more, it will be a makeshift, temporary repair, which will require a site this winter for perfect consolidation. If we started again on this coffee route – in training mode anyway since our direct competitors are already far away – we would not be able to extract the quintessence of our Master CoQ V. And in view of what the models tell us, the conditions weather via the northern route are worse than those faced at the start, and via the southern route, the trade winds are not there… So either we take a risk, or we arrive in Martinique two days before a solo transatlantic, with an unreliable boat…” Bad luck therefore pursues Yannick Bestaven who broke his collarbone last April during a violent fall while cycling. After the withdrawal on Thursday of Paul Meilhat and Mariana Lobato (Biotherm) following the tearing of their mainsail, there remain 35 monohulls in the race out of the 40 leaving Le Havre on Tuesday.
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