We learnt yesterday evening that Maître CoQ V had serious problems with her mainsail after the treacherous conditions in the front. For Biotherm (Meilhat / Lobato), who sheltered in Brest, and MACSF (Joschke / Brasseur) who made it to Lorient during the night, it is out of the question for them to continue the race without this sail. To carry out repairs, Yannick Bestaven, the winner of the last Vendée Globe and his co-skipper, Julien Pulvé, decided to continue southwards to Vigo, in NW Spain. “We did think about stopping in Lorient, but to be able to get going again quickly, it seemed better to moor Maître CoQ V up in Vigo,” explained Jean-Marie Dauris, the team manager. This morning, the IMOCA was about to reach this port to carry out repairs as quickly as possible.

The Swiss pair on Oliver Heer Ocean Racing, who had rigging problems, reached Camaret at around midnight. Six hours later, Oliver Heer and Nils Palmieri set off again almost 500 miles behind the fleet leaders. The conditions for their return to racing are not going to be easy. The pair hope that they will be manageable enough to allow them to weather out the storm and leave the Bay of Biscay behind them. 

For two other IMOCAs, Groupe APICIL (Seguin / Bourguès), who suffered a broken boom yesterday and Lazare (Le Turquais / De Navacelle) who suffered an ingress of water on the starboard side after colliding with a UFO, the clock is ticking in Lorient. Both aim to set sail again to be able to complete this Transat Jacques Vabre. “For us, the race aspect is over, but our current challenge is to repair the boat to get back out there and cross the finish line before the closing date on 1^st December,” explained Tanguy le Turquais, whose pink boat reached the pontoon at 2200hrs UTC. 

“There is a lot of disappointment and frustration, as when the damage occurred, we were doing well. Laurent (Bourguès) and I thought the worst was over, but that wasn’t to be, unfortunately. It’s three in the morning and everyone is busy working here,” Damien Seguin told us. Because of the unstable conditions, he will not set sail again on his Groupe Apicil before Friday. 

FOUR CLASS40S CARRYING OUT PIT STOPS 

In the South of the Bay of Biscay, the Class40 crews are patching up their boats after the damage they suffered. The damage was particularly severe for the pair on Legallais, who had been well positioned up with the frontrunners sailing along the coast of Portugal. But then, they suddenly slammed into a wave and the violent shock damaged the forward structure of this brand new boat. This morning, Fabien Delahaye and Corentin Douguet decided to head for Cascais, to evaluate the extent of the damage.

Then, there was Curium Life Forward (Lepesqueux / de Hareng), who was also not spared and has now decided to turn back. “An ingress of water aboard. We’re going back to Lorient. Really unlucky,” wrote Marc Lepesqueux, who had only just overcome his electronic problems. “Yet another race in the race,” added the skipper from Normandy, who has had a series of problems. In Lorient, he will see the crew from Le Havre with The Sea Cleaners - Univerre – ENSM (Courbon / Champion), who are doing what they can to fit a new spar to the boat, after she was dismasted on Monday. 

For others, it was a matter of a lightning pit stop. The all-women duo on Bleuet de France (Cormouls-Houles / de Fleurian)  have done well after a headsail problem and a U-Bolt problem. They popped into the harbour in Cario in Spain to climb the mast and have been back at sea since midnight. The Spaniards on Mussulo (Caldas / Peixoto) set sail again yesterday evening from La Coruna after repairing their broken wind instruments. The crew of Trimcontrol (Le Gallais / Vroon) reached Vigo last night after their bowsprit was broken.  At noon today, from Lorient to Cascais, including Vigo, four pairs are carrying out pit stops still in Class40.

We should also mention the hard work and perseverance of the sailors on Qwanza (Marie / Battesti). The two skippers of the oldest boat in the fleet still racing in this class took it in turns at the helm after their autopilot stopped working. They managed to get it up and running again yesterday… 

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Cover photo @ Transat Jacques Vabre