Breakage of the central rudder for Macif
On Saturday 9 November, François Gabart informed his shore crew of the breakage of the central rudder after a collision with a UFO while sailing off the Cape Verde Islands. A shock that didn't stop him from moving forward since at 4pm, the VPLP plan averaged 35.3 knots over 4 hours, still on the heels of the leader, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Franck Cammas/Charles Caudrelier)?!
"In flight mode, he shouldn't be too bothered by this damage, because the boat is on both float rudders, he may be more handicapped when the wind refuses along the Brazilian coast", said race director Jacques Caraës.
In view of the progress of the boat, and the logistics to be implemented, around this repair, it is finally the port of Rio that the Macif team chose. The latter is currently continuing its journey in 2nd position and will stop over in Brazil for the shortest possible time. A small team has left Brittany to join Rio where Macif is expected on Wednesday. The spare rudder was provided by the Banque Populaire team.
Damaged drift for Maxi Edmond de Rothschild
After leading the fleet for four days, Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier, and after negotiating an express Doldrums passage, the two skippers of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild were forced to stop in Salvador de Bahia.
"The bad news is that we're going to have to stop in Bahia for a few hours. We had a problem before Cape Verde passed over our drift and there are things to fix. Part of the team joins us there and we're going to have to do some "strat" before we leave. We don't know exactly what happened, a collision probably, but visually the bottom of the daggerboard is damaged, so the boat is not in optimal sailing conditions. We prefer to check all this before we move to more southerly latitudes. With Cyril Dardashti, the team and our router Marcel Van Triest, we we weighed the pros and cons: what it costs us to stop in terms of miles, what remains to be done in terms of race length, as we have only completed a quarter of the course, the weather to come and of course safety. After looking at all this, we think that the best compromise is this stop to leave with a boat at 100% of its potential ", Franck Cammas detailed.
Thanks to the help of the organisers of the Transat Jacques Vabre, and in agreement with the person in charge of the Marina of Salvador de Bahia, the maxi trimaran came to moor for a few hours at the foot of the Pelourinho to repair its damaged daggerboard.
