26.11.2008
Jérémie Beyou, skipper of DELTA DORE
has informed the Race Committee of his withdrawal from the Vendée Globe race this morning (Wednesday) in view of the impossibility of repairing his IMOCA 60 without major external assistance. Jérémie Beyou will be contacted by the Vendée Globe press centre during the 11am session today.
He sent a moving e-mail to DELTA DORE'S staff.
He had a feeling this would be necessary. But while he was out of sight of land, and had not been able to have a close look at the standing rigging, he wanted to continue to hope and delay the time when he would have to take one of the cruellest decisions of his competitive career: To abandon the race, his first single-handed round the world race, when he still had his boat and a mast. So Jérémie Beyou took this inevitable decision this morning when he arrived in the Brazilian port of Recife, sixteen and a half days into the race.
Cursed spreaders.
On the 14th day of the race Jérémie Beyou found serious damage to the standing rigging of his monohull: a spreader had broken from its bracket on the mast, followed by another. Consequently the standing rigging and the mast have also been damaged.
If he stepped ashore it meant withdrawing.
Under the rules of the Race, if it had happened near to Sables d'Olonne just after the start Jérémie would have been allowed to return to the port of departure and undertake repairs with the assistance of his technical team using new parts. He would just have to have left within 10 days of the start. After that period it is strictly forbidden to go ashore and be helped in any way. This is vital to the spirit of this unique single-handed race around the world, with no stops and no outside assistance.
Determination and sailing skills.
Jérémie Beyou was in the race from the start of the Vendée Globe on 9th November, happy and cautious. Always in the leading group, he never missed the opportunity to share his impressions and his race by e-mail. In the storm that eliminated several competitors, he decided to go easy until the weather was more favourable. The boat was perfectly prepared, with equipment that was sometimes over-specified to ensure it would not fail under even the most extreme conditions.
Five areas of damage on DELTA DORE.
- The tangs (brackets) of the 2 and 3 starboard spreaders have ruptured. It is not possible to repair them or to machine new parts on board. They are high-precision titanium parts, machined from a single piece and adjusted to the female parts on the spreaders.
- The number 2 and 3 starboard spreaders are broken. They are in carbon fibre. Stratification would be impossible on board, but their mechanical resistance would be reduced by an on-the-spot repair. An expert analysis is necessary before any repair can be envisaged.
- The starboard external standing rigging, which is in PBO textile fibre, has been severely damaged by the repeated shocks from the spreaders: the 2 and 3 vertical shrouds and 3 and 4 diagonals are unserviceable.
- The starboard running backstay is also severely damaged (fibres cut through)
- The carbon fibre mast tube has also been partly damaged by the blows from the spreaders.
Continuing?
Continuing a race round the world with rigging so weakened is impossible, because the boat can no longer sail on a starboard tack. Even with outside assistance the damage is too extensive to envisage a rapid departure to race 20,000 nautical miles round the world in hostile seas. It is also essential to understand why these parts broke before replacing them with identical parts.
Jérémie cannot repair the damage as Yves Parlier was able to in 2000.
In the 2000-2001 Vendée Globe, Yves Parlier dismasted in the southern hemisphere and stopped for shelter at Stewart Island, not far from New Zealand. With no outside assistance, he was able to stratify and sleeve his self-supporting mast (which had outriggers, but no spreaders).
DELTA DORE has a fractional mast with three sets of spreaders. It is designed differently, with irreplaceable titanium parts which have ruptured and cannot be machined on board. The starboard standing rigging (textile cables which support the mast and bear several tonnes of load) cannot be repaired and must be entirely replaced.
DELTA DORE and the other new boats are more extreme and more technical than 8 years ago, with much greater constraints on the rigging.
Today it is simply neither sensible nor possible to re-enter the race. In 2005 DELTA DORE and Jérémie Beyou won a magnificent victory when they carried off the Solitaire du Figaro and became double French Single-handed Ocean Racing Champion. They were hoping live an exciting new adventure together in the Vendée Globe.
Excerpt from an e-mail sent to DELTA DORE by Jérémie Beyou
The sea has contributed to undermining the boat's already very damaged rigging, and today I think it is impossible to hope to see her sailing safely again in the near future.
But I received the hardest blow three days ago when I found the damage: it was heart-breaking to have to withdraw from a race in which I was so well placed. The boat was going well, and so was her skipper. I can assure you that my boat was in perfect condition and perfectly prepared until this piece of bad luck.
I am immensely disappointed, and I can well imagine that you are too. It is very hard to bear the build-up of disappointments in this project. I can only thank you for the support you have given me, and for providing me with the opportunity to defend my colours, our colours, and show that I am capable of better, if technical problems will only let me do so. But our project is worthwhile, and is a fine image despite everything, you may be sure of that!
Please thank all the staff for me: they have always been behind me. They will find it difficult to grasp what has happened, but they must understand that we are not in charge of the sea, and even if it is very frustrating we sometimes have to accept that we cannot play on the sea with a wounded boat, even if we very much wish to do so.
I'm going to have to learn to live outside this race while continuing to support my friends who are still in it.
And then of course, we must bounce back - there will be other races, why not in an Imoca 60, no doubt another Vendée Globe. It's important to "get back in the saddle after falling from your horse" if you don't want to be too afraid to do so later!
In any case, thank you for being present at the start (a wonderful moment!), for your messages of support, and for all the goodwill you have given to this project.
Jérémie
|
