Press Release
Friday 17th December 2004
15h00 GMT 17 December 2004
1. PRB (Vincent Riou) 12046.9 nautical miles from the finish.
2. Bonduelle (Jean Le Cam) 13.3 nm from the leader.
3. Sill et Véolia (Roland Jourdain) 144.1 nm from the leader.
NB: Until the Race Management has received a written text from Roland Jourdain expressing his official desire to retire from the race, the latter reindexs in the ranking.
Roland Jourdain suffers irreparable keel damage
Yet to officially retire from this fifth Vendée Globe, Roland Jourdain (Sill et Véolia) has suffered what can only be described as irreparable keel damage. Undecided whether to make the 660 miles to Hobart or nearly 1800 miles to Auckland, he cannot face up to giving up his race at this time, even though it is inevitable. There seems to be no reasonable explanation at this stage as to why the top of the brand new keel has cracked. On zone, the depression, which has enabled the four (five including Jourdain) lead boats to group back together, is blowing itself out. It has passed Josse and Golding, who are currently sailing in easing north north-westerly wind. A little further ahead, Riou-Le Cam will hold onto a little more pressure for a short while longer. Ahead of them is a strange cocktail of low pressure systems to the south of New Zealand and it looks very much like there will be a toll for passing into the Pacific Ocean this weekend. Towards the rear of the fleet, Joé Seeten (Arcelor Dunkerque) and Patrice Carpentier (VM Matériaux are set to pay their dues too with an 80 knot pasting forecast tonight...
“It´s all over, there is no way I can continue” said Roland Jourdain this morning. “The hardest thing is having to head north. F..it! I really don´t want to push the helm north." Sadly, Sill et Veolia suffered irreparable damage to the keel early this morning and has a horizontal crack on the port side of his keel which is now visible at the front and on the starboard side. Under the effect of the hydraulic ram, a black carbon liquid is oozing out of the cracks. "I don´t know where it´s going to end" said a devastated Jourdain. "I didn´t touch anything. There was no impact. I can´t understand it at all. Even if I lose this damn keel the boat shouldn´t capsize. I´ve considerably reduced the sail area and I´ve filled the ballasts with sea water. I´ve just got to watch my friends continue their course. It´s a crushing blow as we have been preparing for this race for the past four years, with our sights on victory. We were really in the match and now the sky has fallen in on us...”
Roland Jourdain immediately called Jean Le Cam to warn him of the situation. With exactly the same keel, Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) was probably the most concerned about the damage suffered to Sill et Véolia. The skipper, Roland Jourdain (Bilou) is a childhood friend and they decided some time ago to build these sisterships, which barring the odd minor detail, are exactly the same.
Meantime Vincent Riou (PRB) has stretched out his lead over Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) by just five miles in the past four hours, the latter clearly having other preoccupations this morning. He currently has an advance of 13.3 miles, just a day from the midway mark in this fifth Vendée Globe. “The boat is gliding along well. It was a bit difficult last night and instead of having the forecast reaching conditions we ended up with upwind. I think the whole fleet will be squeezed up a bit, with the concertina effects coming into play. There was a lot of trimming last night as the wind would suddenly shift right round. There are average seas with a big chop. It’s grey and rainy and we appear to be in the warm front of the bazaar on port tack. I’m really shocked to hear about Bilou, it’s all the more annoying when it’s someone you know well. Breakage is something we think about all the time. The racing continues though and tomorrow we are mid-course.”
Officially in 5th place Mike Golding (Ecover) was very saddened by the news of his friend Bilou’s problems. “Bilou is one of the great characters of the race, one of the people we most thought would do well – and he has done well. But he’s had a lot of trouble with that keel and it seems unfair he’s having more trouble now. It may be that Bilou has experienced a slam or some dynamic loading that Jean Le Cam hasn’t. It’s quite possible. We’re a very different design. We’re a steel keel. There is a lot of precedence for my system, a lot of boats that have used this configuration with no problems. I’ve not had any impact, not hit anything, so there’s no reason to be worried. I preferred the simplicity and reliability of a steel keel. We engineered three blades – a steel fabricated blade, a forged steel blade, and a carbon blade – we looked at the weights and the performance potentials, but we took the cheapest option because we felt the money was better spent elsewhere.” For the time being Mike is falling off the back off yesterday’s weather system quite rapidly thinking that an extension is quite possible. “It looks very light ahead. We don’t really get our teeth into anything big until after Christmas. So it looks like a bit of a stoppage. And even while the leaders may extend out, they’ve still got a ridge to get across. The guys behind have got a genuine opportunity to close the gap. As the routing stands I don’t see the boats getting back on the money until after Christmas.”
Behind Mike, Jean Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec) decided to gybe earlier on today and is climbing up towards the first gateway of the Indian Ocean to the South-west of Australia. For him, like Dominique Wavre (Temenos), well isolated between the leading group and his pursuers some 500 miles back, it looks like a quiet day ahead in regular west South-westerly winds.
Meanwhile the situation for the Seeten (Arcelor Dunkerque)-Carpentier (VM Matériaux) duo looks considerably more complicated. They are sailing immediately next to each other in the heart of the depression centred not far off Heard Island. This is filling in and will blow up to 60 knots from the south west, with gusts of 80 knots! The forecast suggests seas of 6 to 8 metres and it is clearly going to be an escape mission for Joé and Patrice. Anne Liardet (Roxy) and Benoit Parnaudeau (Max Havelaar-Best Western) are taking shelter to let the bulk of the depression pass in front of them, with very crossed seas and strong winds. Same call for Karen Leibovici (Benefic) and Raphaël Dinelli (Akena Verandas) to the north of the Crozet Islands. 650 miles from the Kerguelen Islands, they shouldn’t be affected by the development of the depression as they will pass to the north of the archipelago. At the back of the fleet Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto) has made up another 10 miles on Leibovici and is now just 149.1 miles behind her.
Quotes from the Boats
Roland Jourdain: “I first noticed a strange grinding noise about 48 hours ago. It was different to all the other boat sounds. I opened the lid of the keel box and saw that there was a lot of play on the head of the keel which means that it rocks around on its axis. I could see through the tubing that there was air in the hydraulic fluid. The carbon cap that reinforces the head of the keel has become unstuck and I have absolutely no idea why. It’s a catastrophe. There is nothing more sturdy than a keel made entirely of carbon. Obviously I called Jean (he has exactly the same keel on his sistership) and he immediately checked his own keel. His keel didn’t have any symptoms. That’s just the luck of the draw but you can’t help asking yourself why on earth it happened. Yesterday I passed the date when I had a massive problem with my indexsail track four years ago and so I thought I was safe, now I feel like my world has fallen about my ears. I just can’t face sending a fax or an email to officially retire from the race but I don’t think Father Christmas is going to bring me a new keel either. I don’t think there is any risk that I’m going to lose my keel altogether – I’ll just have to watch that I don’t do anything stupid. I have placed the keel on its proper axis (straight down) so as to put as little a pressure as possible on it and seriously considered continuing the race with the keel in that position. If ever there was bad weather though I’d be playing with fire. I’m doing my ‘Moitessier’ at the moment. All this (thoughts of retiring) is too new. I’m keeping my tears to myself for the moment. It’s hard to digest. This race is like the Olympics of sailing and it too is only every four years. Racing yesterday and making ground on Jean, things had never been so exciting. All my team have put so much into this. We’ve had a lot of stress with the whole project (earlier keel issues in the 1000 Milles de Calais race) to such an extent that even I lost my rag occasionally, which is not in my nature at all. I’m truly devastated.”
Karen Leibovici (Benefic): “It’s pretty harrowing. There’s quite a lot of noise with both the sound of the boat and the waves. At times the boat is covered right over but the boat is righting itself without any problem. I’m under a reefed index and trinquette and the boat is going well. I was north of the Crozet Islands yesterday and have no real idea where I’m going (laughs)! I know that I’m going to have to gybe tonight or tomorrow morning to get north of the Kerguelens. The pilot’s fine and the engine is working – I just have to be careful when the boat heels a lot that it doesn’t get water in it. I’ve got around 30/35 knots just at the rear of the large depression (that is causing nasty conditions for Seeten and Carpentier).
Source: Vendée Globe 2004
www.vendeeglobe.org
Vendée Globe Press Office
Tel: +33 1 55 56 62 95 - Fax : +33 1 55 56 62 90 - @ : press@vendeeglobe.fr
French Media: Caroline Concetti, Anne Millet and Soazig Guého
International Media: Sabina Mollart-Rogerson, Ophélie Théron
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