Press Release No.46
Wednesday 17th December – 1600 hrs
Loïck Peyron’s long route
Quite unlike the title of Bernard Moitessier’s famous book, Loïck Peyron has
no desire to sail round and round without ever reaching land… Indeed it’s
the very thought of land which is the daily motivation for the skipper of
Gitana Eighty.
It’s already been a week since the sailor’s Vendée Globe dreams and the
hopes of Gitana Team were stopped in their tracks off the Kerguelen Islands.
In a split second, after a magnificent performance over the first third of
the course in this 6th edition of the solo round the world without stopovers
and without assistance, the skipper had to lay down his arms following the
breakage of his mast.
After 48 hours’ wait, which was the time required to draw up a plan to
recuperate the monohull and the sailor, the decision was made to make for
Australia and more specifically the port of Fremantle on the SW coast, some
2,800 miles away at the time. Since then, equipped with a jury rig which
Loïck Peyron is improving day by day, Gitana Eighty is continuing to truck
on through the Indian Ocean, an ocean which has been living up to its lousy
reputation once more… Indeed, last Friday, the Swiss sailor Dominique Wavre
announced that he was altering course towards the Kerguelen following the
breakage of his keel head. This serious damage sadly brought the sailor’s
race to an abrupt end. Just hours later, it was the turn of his compatriot,
Bernard Stamm, to signal rudder issues. The Swiss sailor then decided that
he would make for Port-aux-Français in Kerguelen, but the particularly harsh
weather conditions on his arrival in the Baie du Morbihan were to put paid
to the sailor’s determination. Plagued by bad luck his boat was driven onto
shore. Further misfortune followed yesterday with the dismasting of the
English sailor Mike Golding and the withdrawal from the competition of
Jean-Baptiste Dejanty. These two further abandons have been added to what is
already an overly long list, which the skipper of Gitana Eighty briefly
analyses: “Unfortunately there has been a big epidemic of abandons since me
and I’m really sorry for them, with a particular mention for Bernard.
However, I’m not being fatalistic when I say that it doesn’t surprise me!
When we committed ourselves to taking the start of the Vendée Globe, we all
knew that certain boats wouldn’t cross the finish line. We set off in full
knowledge of the facts and we just have to hope that we’re not going to be
part of it… Personally I don’t think that the pace of this 6th edition is
the source of this damage. Sailing is a mechanical sport which is constantly
progressing and being perfected, however there is still a random, unknown
aspect. We are in an Open class, at the helm of prototypes…”
There is still a long way to go to get to Australia – 1,800 miles this
Wednesday 17th December – and after 31 days of intense racing, the end of
the voyage is proving to be quite ‘special’ for Loïck Peyron. The reasons
for this are that sailors who are racing put up with – or almost relish you
could say – the noise and the impact of the sea, but when progress is no
longer motivated by the appeal of the competition, it becomes more
difficult: “This situation isn’t very pleasant for a whole host of reasons,
primarily because I’d really prefer to be racing rather than where I am!
Without a mast it’s very uncomfortable to make headway, especially as
there’s a steady wind at the moment – around 35 knots since yesterday – and
the seas are big and very complicated. Gybing under jury rig are pretty
full-on… but luckily there’s not many manoeuvres. Fortunately I’ve got my
big collection of books, so I’m trying to pass my time reading them. I’m
also mulling over the light winds to come and on rigging up a third sail so
as to make better headway in the light conditions” concluded Loïck Peyron.
However, these long days bound for Australia are naturally providing Loïck
Peyron and his shore crew with an opportunity to look back at the incident
and try to decipher the root of the problem, even though it’ll be several
weeks before a conclusion can be drawn about the mast breakage.
Once he’s reached shore, the skipper from Pouliguen is keen to see his
nearest and dearest as soon as possible. At that point the Gitana Team will
take over from him and organise for the Imoca monohulll to be repatriated to
Europe. However, according to the latest estimates, Gitana Eighty is
unlikely to make the port of Fremantle before 29th or 30th December.
www.gitana-team.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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