Sturmvideo
16.11.2009
JULES VERNE TROPHY
(CREWED ROUND THE WORLD VIA THE THREE CAPES)
Time to beat: 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds
Monday 16th November – Press release No.13
Damage, destination Cape Town
It was at 1216 UT on Monday 16th November, that the skipper of Groupama 3,
Franck Cammas, called the Jules Verne Trophy team to inform them that an aft
beam bulkhead had broken, leading to serious damage to the float. Despite
the storm, Groupama 3 is slowly making headway towards Cape Town some 1,700
miles away (3,000 km) and is therefore abandoning this particular Jules
Verne Trophy…
At around 1200 UT this Monday, a big cracking sound dashed the hopes of
Franck Cammas and his nine crew in their bid to break Orange 2’s round the
world record from back in 2005 (50 d 16h 20’). A bulkhead attached to the
aft beam simply gave up the ghost in the harsh conditions as the giant
trimaran was sailing with her sails angled at 90° to the true wind in a
powerful NNE’ly air flow and rough seas. The crew knew they had to go fast
to stay in the right sector of the warm front, hot on their heels, in order
to drop down towards the Cape of Good Hope with the Brazilian low. The
resulting weakness then caused the windward float to fissure and, in light
of the sizeable damage, the crew immediately stopped the boat and concluded
that it would be necessary to abandon this round the world attempt.
“We’d spent the night sailing fast to stay ahead of the front and this
morning Thomas Coville and Bruno Jeanjean were on deck when they heard a big
‘crack’: there was a small fissure between the aft beam and the port float.
Conditions were really bouncy: we came to a standstill with the wind right
on our tail so as to be able to open the hatch and get down inside the
float. Part of the section between the beam and the float level with the
bulkhead had become detached. As such the structural integrity was reduced
by at least half. It is impossible to envisage effecting repairs at sea due
to the motion. At the moment we’re still being shaken about: there was 35
knots of wind on the beam at the moment the incident occurred and just now,
we’ve been caught up by the front so we’ve got 40 knots of breeze...
We’ve dumped the mainsail and Groupama 3 is running before the wind to avoid
any harsh motion. We’re going to draw up a route to avoid having too much
wind and excessive waves. We’re heading South to let the second low pass by
us tonight and then we’ll head off towards Cape Town tomorrow morning,
Tuesday. We’re continuing with the same watch system and I’m working with
Stan to see what we can do next. The idea then is to get back to France as
quickly as possible: the crew’s up for that and if we can set off again
before the end of January then it’s still feasible to make a new attempt!”
indicated Franck Cammas during a telephone link-up early this afternoon.
Present during this telephone interview with Franck, Director of External
Communication at Groupama Frédérique Granado, explained the situation: “The
most important thing is that the crew are safe and sound. Our priority is
that they make Cape Town under the safest possible conditions. We know we
can count on their experience and their determination to preserve Groupama
3. Hearing them allude to a new departure this winter is the best proof of
this.”
heading towards Africa
As such the wisest solution is to quickly make for port to get a better idea
of the true scale of the damage and above all prevent the situation from
worsening. Cape Town, around 1,700 miles ahead of the giant trimaran’s bows,
will be the quickest pitstop to get to and the sea and wind conditions
aren’t too bad. Nevertheless, it’s going to take a week’s sailing for
Groupama 3 to tie up to the dock and then be repaired prior to heading North
again bound for France.
Clearly the ten men are very disappointed after this ten and a half day
planetary adventure. The trimaran had confirmed her fantastic performance by
racking up over 700 miles on her way down the North Atlantic and by
considerably improving on her own reference time between Ushant and the
equator: 5 days 15 hours 23 minutes!
At the point the damage occurred, Groupama 3 still had a 345 mile lead over
Orange 2 (that is over half a day) and was making headway at an average
speed in excess of 25 knots, on a direct course towards the Kerguelen
archipelago. Having hooked onto a Brazilian low on Sunday, after a
particularly slow weekend, Franck Cammas and his nine crew were fast
approaching the Roaring Forties.
They have since been stopped dead in their tracks but, as Franck highlights,
they’re more motivated than ever to effect repairs and set off again as soon
as possible this winter for another attempt.
Find all the latest about the Groupama trimarans on:
www.cammas-groupama.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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