On Tuesday 6th December 2016, Kito de Pavant warned his shore team of serious damage aboard his IMOCA Bastide-Otio. After a collision with a UFO, the keel of the monohull almost came loose, causing water to enter the boat. The skipper then asked for it to be recovered. (Read more : Waterway aboard Bastide-Otio, Kito de Pavant is waiting for help )
Kito de Pavant was recovered by a RIB sent by the vessel Marion Dufresne II at about 0200 French time. He is fine, but is very tired and disappointed. The boat was about 110 miles north of Kito de Pavant's position and made the quickest possible attempt to reach the skipper. The keel of his monohull was in danger of coming loose at any moment and was threatening the sailor's life. As darkness was falling over the zone, the vessel reached Bastide-Otio at around 17:30 (French time) and made radio contact with Kito de Pavant, who was able to describe the situation while the wind was still blowing at around thirty knots in very rough seas.
"I've been lucky in my misfortune! The Marion Dufresne was on zone and only four times a year... The conditions were bad and at the end of the night, I couldn't manage to spread out the waterway any more.
The floors were floating: it was hard to leave my boat and abandon her in the middle of nowhere, it hurts my heart to lose the boat. But it was the only solution because I had almost no power left for the pumps and I couldn't recharge the batteries as the engine was under water..
A good part of the hull is badly damaged since the bottom of the hull is gone with the aft bearing of the keel. And the keel actuator tore more than a metre of the hull: it was sinister to see the boat in this state. It was becoming too dangerous for me..
So I'm on the Marion Dufresne II which is on its way to the Crozet Islands, then the Kerguelen Islands, Amsterdam: I'm on the TAAF supply ship for three weeks. These are regions that I do not know, so I am going to tour these desolate islands.
The shock was very clear, very strong: I was walking between 15 and 20 knots with 25-30 knots and heavy seas. I was cautious, not too fast, very downcast to be in phase with the wind. I hit something, I don't know what, but I heard a loud popping sound and I immediately thought of something hard. But looking at the back of the boat, I didn't see anything sticking out. Maybe what I heard was the crash on the boat..
The impact fractured the aft part of the keel and hull at this level and the aft bearing was gone. When I went to check, the keel was still hanging, but after rolling up the staysail (J-3) to slow the boat down, the keel went down about ten centimetres. It only got worse: I couldn't intervene.
I tacked to change course in order to go back up north, but soon I realised that the boat couldn't go any further. I lowered the mainsail and called the Race Direction..
The Marion Dufresne was fortunately 110 miles to my North, as the other alternative was Louis Burton, which was two days away from my position! He would have arrived tomorrow morning..
It's terrible to leave the boat there because I'm losing a lot and the consequences will be heavy: it's the first time I've lost a boat?
"Morally, I'm quite marked, physically, I have nothing." explained the sailor.
"We picked up Kito de Pavant with our RIB this morning despite the weather still being quite choppy with force 6-7 and big waves. We were able to launch our dinghy and retrieve it from his boat. We were on a supply mission to the Austral Islands, a usual mission in December: we left Reunion Island on 2nd December.
The MRCC tried to contact me, but it didn't work, so we were put in contact through the security service in Marseille around 10:00 a.m. GMT on Tuesday. We were then about 110 miles from the boat's position, to the north. We were able to accelerate to maximum speed despite the weather conditions and it took us less time than expected to get in contact with the skipper. We arrived in the zone around 16:30 UTC and night was falling.
We were in visual and VHF radio contact with Kito de Pavant, but with nightfall and heavy weather, it was impossible to intervene immediately knowing that the skipper still had the situation under control aboard his boat. By mutual agreement, we decided to wait until daybreak to put our RIB in the water and come and pick it up.
He described his situation to us: he had a controlled water ingress and we agreed that if his boat capsized due to the loss of his keel, we would pick him up in his life raft. We had regular contact with him, which allowed him to get some sleep.
This morning the situation started to get worse because the water level rose. Kito de Pavant was therefore picked up directly by our RIB and taken on board the Marion Dufresne II: he's tired and above all very disappointed to have had to leave the race and his boat... A doctor has taken care of him..." said Commandant Dudouit of the Marion Dufresne II.
