Jonny Malbon (Artemis, GBR) has this morning announced his decision to retire from the Vendée Globe due to the ongoing problems with his mainsail.
Artemis’s mainsail began delaminating three weeks ago, apparently due to a problem with the adhesion between the scrim and fibres. Over the past 24 hours the sail has broken down further, with a one metre-long vertical tear developing as the final taffeta layer also began to disintegrate. The damage is so severe that Malbon cannot repair it onboard, as he explained during yesterday’s radio broadcast: “It’s getting worse and worse and worse. I simply cannot repair that sort of damage, I’ve never seen anything like it before, I don’t have enough materials or glue or I haven’t got enough hands.”
Artemis has been racing in 12th place and is currently 300 miles south of New Zealand. With the isolated Pacific Ocean still ahead and no landfall until South America, Malbon and his team have assessed the situation and decided that his best option is to retire and head for the South Island of New Zealand.
Artemis is also suffering a damaged starboard rudder, following a collision with a whale several weeks ago, which — combined with his mainsail issues — would make sailing upwind near-impossible. Previous issues, such as difficulties with his watermakers and an ongoing battery charging problem, are not in themselves race-threatening, but combined with the lack of mainsail could become deeply problematic over time.