This morning (Thursday), as he was working on the bow of Generali, Yann Eliès was was thrown along the deck and sustained a fracture to his thighbone. While he waits to be evacutated from his boat, following a request from the race directors, Marc Guillemot has changed course to help offer the injured skipper psychological support. Guillemot’s Safran less than one hundred miles from Generali at the time and is expected to there in six or seven hours time.
Elies was working at the bow, leaning on the pulpit, as he was preparing a sail, when his 60-foot boat, Generali, came to a sudden halt slamming into a wave. The sailor felt a sudden acute pain. He collapsed on the foredeck and had to crawl back inside his boat to contact his team. According to the initial diagnosis from Dr. Jean-Yves Chauve, the race doctor, Yann is suffering from a broken femur (thighbone).
The monohull, Generali, tis lying hove to,i s currently 800 miles south of Australia in the Indian Ocean. The Australian emergency services were immediately alerted and are looking at ways to get Yann off as quickly as possible.