When lying in fourth place in the Transat Jacques Vabre race from Le Havre to Porto Limon, Costa Rica, the British IMOCA Open 60 Hugo Boss last night reported hitting an unidentified object in the water, damaging the starboard bow of the boat and causing them to take in water. They have slowed the boat right down, have a pump working, are managing the ingress of water.
Alex Thomson, the skipper, has reported that conditions are stable and they are not in any imminent danger. The British pair are in regular contact with TJV Race Director Jean Maurel. They have been in discussion with their shore team, and with a structural engineer from SP before they make any decisions as to what their options are.
Hugo Boss was approximately 400 miles south of the Azores.
Thomson said:
“I am gutted, we have done the hard bit, been through the storms and the way ahead was looking very easy. We will monitor the situation overnight and assess in the morning what our options are,”
Further down the race course, abreast of the Canary Islands the three way battle at the front of the fleet continues with Safran still holding the upper hand as the trio negotiate the more tricky downwind conditions at the lower edge of a high pressure before breaking into a more stable SE’ly wind flow.
As under-pressure leaders Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier on Safran bent to the task of holding off the rapidly advancing, Kito de Pavant and Francois Gabart, their smiling, chilled rivals on identical design sistership, the laughing cow’ logo’d Groupe Bel, back on eighth placed Aviva Britain’s Dee Caffari declared herself one ‘happy bunny’ as she and Brian Thompson hit the trade-winds conveyor belt, into the warmth , the sunshine and brisker winds, for some fast, champagne sailing and a chance to unwrap herself from the layers of warm, waterproof clothing she has had on for the best part of week,
But for Alex Thomson, once again it is the unfortunately familiar welling up of bitter disappointment to deal with, as he and co-skipper Ross Daniel are forced to head for the Azores, limping north with Hugo Boss taking on water after they hit something at high speed yesterday afternoon. After a night at slow speed trying to keep the damaged area, an indentation of about 30 cms, Thomson and Daniel’s race is over, all too soon.
If the anger and frustration feels like déjà vu after having to pull out of last year’s Vendée Globe with structural damage sustained in the first big storm, less than 36 hours into the race, Thomson’s shred of consolation this time is that he had done a good job through the worst storm and had earned a strong position with Hugo Boss. But this afternoon that was a bitter pill to swallow. He had certainly achieved the objective of giving former boat captain Ross Daniel a first hand insight into the rigours of ocean racing on the Open 60 with a view to maximising gear reliability for future endeavours.
When Daniel went forwards after striking an object with a thud during yesterday afternoon he found four tonnes of water in the watertight compartment.
“ It is impossible to repair it, not because it is very big, but because there is water coming in and we can’t stop it from coming in. And so we will retire from the race and head for the Azores.” Thomson confirmed this afternoon.
“ We had told ourselves we had done the worst part of it. We had been through the storm and probably had had the worst of it. We had been knocked down by a breaking waves, and this boat is strong as hell. I am totally confident in with its strength in any way, in fact I am
amazed that you can put a boat through that. So I am quite pissed off that we are having to retire from the race because someone has discarded some rubbish in the sea which has caused a hole in the hull.”
Safran has more or less stabilised their losses to Groupe Bel, but the leader’s margin is down to 28 miles and there is the promise of an engaging duel to the Caribbean as the leaders pick their way west and south down the edge of the high pressure system. Mike Golding and Javier Sanso have dropped back to some 70 miles behind on Mike Golding Yacht Racing but they have some 200 miles of cushioning to fourth placed Roland Jourdaind and Jean Luc Nelias on Veolia Environnement. And they have their hands full as Michel Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou are up to fifth with just two miles to catch the Foncia skipper’s long time sparring partner, friend and rival.
Dee Caffari, GBR Aviva:
“ Things are wonderful, the sun is shining, it is warm and I am not being hosed constantly in the face by water. I am about to shed some layers and so I am a very happy bunny.”
“ Since we left the Azores we had a big lightning squall, loads of wind and then it shifted and now the wind has just gone behind us, so similar to the rest of the pack really, so we are hanging in there as we all converge in this kind of meeting zone, and going round the edge
of a high pressure rather than dealing with depressions, so we have blue skies, fluffy white clouds and the boat is going like a dream. So it is time to get these niggly jobs which were a problem in the bad weather sorted out one by one.”
“ We have some chafe on some lines to deal with, the wind instruments are not the best at the moment, but I think that is a common occurrence with the bumping around these boats have taken. I am having to charge with the engine rather than the generator which is a bit slow and laborious, especially as the temperatures are rising, but really nothing which is
going to stop us getting to Costa Rica if we have a say.”
“ We are all on a bit of a conveyor belt at the moment, it is quite funny the way we have all converged again, no matter which way we came. And now the weather is quite obvious so it is going to be very obvious where everyone will go and so we have to hang in there on boat-speed and claw back some miles. We started so well, lost a lot of miles in the bad weather and now we have to get some back.”
“ We can be competitive now, we did some jobs this morning which meant we were kind of slow changing up the gears, but now we are full main, big Code sails and the boatspeed is pretty good.”Alex Thomson, GBR (Hugo Boss):
“We were sailing along with jib-top, full main TWA about 130 degrees, wind speed about 22 knots surfing at over 20 knots, probably averaging 18 knots, about three o’clock in the afternoon we hit something…. a pretty good thump….i did not see it, it did not hit the rudder, but for sure we can tell we hit something. We had a good look around the boat, and by the time Ross got forwards, the boat was getting very, very hard to steer, and by the time he got up forward one of the watertight compartments had about 4 tonnes of water in it, which is why the boat was not steering. We took some pictures and sent them back to our shore crew. This morning we have reassessed the damage, decided it is impossible to repair it, not because it is very big, but because there is water coming in and we can’t stop it from coming in. And so we will retire from the race and head for the Azores. The damage is on the starboard side of the bow, about three or four metres back, not on the centreline off to the starboard side but about half a metre out. What we can see on the inside is a depression, so
something has clobbered the outside and made a big indent and there is water coming through, not very big about 300mm or so. We had told ourselves we had done the worst part of it. We had been through the storm and probably had had the worst of it. We had been knocked down by a breaking waves, and this boat is strong as hell. I am totally confident in with its strength in any way, in fact I am amazed that you can put a boat through that. So I am quite pissed off that we are having to retire from the race because someone has
discarded some rubbish in the sea which has caused a hole in the hull.”
“ I was thinking to myself yesterday lunch time, about one o’clock that it was fantastic sailing, Ross was steering, we were in good position, we had been through the worst of the storm, and we had done the riskiest bit, so to get damaged by someone else’s rubbish is just
gutting. Really gutting.”
“ We have shored up the area to make sure it does not get any worse and we will slowly limp towards Horta. We are leaning over just now with the keel on the other side, but I am sure that more water will come when we get under way, but I am not worried at all that we will not be able to keep up with the amount of water coming in.”
Marc Guillemot, FRA (Safran):
“During the night we carried out a few gybes to get into the position we had planned to be able to make our way through the Antilles. This was our strategy and we had to stick with it. In relation to the finishing line, which is the ultimate goal, our rivals have narrowed the gap. In relation to us, it is still the same situation as yesterday.”
“It’s more relaxing when you are the hunter, but we’re quite pleased about being the hunted. At the moment, we are certainly not feeling any stress, and our goal is to continue along our own route. Charles has spent a lot of time working on the navigation, and has laid the
foundations, which we then take decisions about together. We’re just where we want to be for what lies ahead and we shall see whether we were right or not.”
Safran hold a lead of just less than 34 miles, as the chasing pair squeeze up a little .
Now in third, after erring closer to the centre of the high and having less wind perhaps, Mike Golding Yacht Racing are less than five miles behind Kito de Pavant and Francois Gabart on Groupe Bel.
Golding said this morning that conditions for them remain tricky, quite unstable under spinnaker with a difficult seaway. Trying to keep the boat settled in course with their autopilots remains testing and so they continue to maximize their time spent hand steering.
Due to the Hugo Boss problems Spanish entry 1876 is now up to fourth whilst steady progress up the fleet continues for Michel Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou who are up to seventh now on Foncia, overtaking Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson on Aviva during yesterday evening.
Foncia’s next target is Desjoyeaux’s long time friend and rival Roland Jourdain on Veolia Environnement, just 40 miles ahead, but Veolia Environnement still have some lighter airs to cross while Foncia who were quickest in the fleet this morning, making two knots faster than the leaders.
Quotes:
Francois Gabart (FRA) Groupe Bel: “It’s going great. Since yesterday morning it’s been tops. We are sliding along under gennaker and it’s really pleasant to steer. Even when you get wet it’s good, so we are happy sliding along in the Atlantic. The trade winds are what we have been looking forward to since leaving France.
But the wind is not so stable, in strength or direction, so we have to steer quit a lot. We are not even that far off gybing. And of course having made it into second we have a smile on our faces this morning.
But you have to fight for the small gains, every mile, always trying to go as fast as possible. Safran is the same boat as ours, so we can’t count on being a better design. And so if we want to catch them we need to use the small wind shifts. In the next few hours we will do the gybe and then after that it is roughly a straight line to the West Indies. But all the time I think the winds will be quite unstable, there are always going to be options and ploys to follow, right into the Caribbean.”
Mike Golding (GBR) Mike Golding Yacht Racing: “We are just under kite and just trying to steer the boat with the pilot. We gybed and so that turned out be a bit of a mission. It is good, we are passing through the ridge of the high pressure and trying to choose how to proceed next, conditions are good but there is a bit of a sea running which makes it a bit tricky with the kite and obviously we are having to be a little attentive because we don’t have any wind gear, we had a little problem through the gybe with a squeezer, so have had to change kites, but otherwise all quite normal and cracking along quite nicely.”