Sea, Sail & Surf news

From offshore to inshore: all the news abouts sea sports from 2000

TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE

Sergio Tacchini retires to Port La Foret with substantial damage

La Rage De Vivre is first official abandon with broken rudder

Tuesday 6 November 2001Information Transat Jacques Vabre

The Transat Jacques Vabre Transat Jacques Vabre #TJV2015 Race HQ in Paris has just received the news that Sergio Tacchini (Fauconnier/Proffit) is retiring to home base at Port La Foret in France. They managed to detail more of their incident this morning and here is a transcript of that explanation from their shore team.

The duo were up front furling the gennaker when a 40 knot gust came in and the boat luffed violently, cracking the bowsprit, which hit Karine on the head and holed the bow, ripping part of the gennaker too. Franck managed to push the bowsprit back so the boat could continue downwind sailing but then the gennaker unfurled at the top and the boat took off on a surf Surf #Surf , and then stopped dead as the bows planted straight into the wave in front. The main sail filled out suddenly as the boat stopped and in doing so broke all the battens in one fell swoop.

Franck Proffit, winner of the last Transat Jacques Vabre Transat Jacques Vabre #TJV2015 , did not hide their disappointment: "We were convinced our Westerly position was paying, and thought we had to hang in for just 12 more hours before escaping these terrible conditions! But we have to use our heads here and even if we could have made a stop at Lisbon it would have risked this new boat being more damaged than it already is. Also we have had to cut the lazy jack to get the main down and the goose-neck has broken."

In the Open 60 Monohull fleet, Loic Pochet is the first skipper to officially abandon the race with co-skipper Patrick Tabarly, La Rage de Vivre fell victim to a broken rudder. "I was helming in 30 knots of wind, with genoa and one reef on port tack. I felt a great shock through the boat, no idea what we must have hit but the starboard rudder has just disintegrated." They got all their sails down, checked through the boat, and are heading North West, waiting for the NW breeze for them to turn towards Lorient Lorient L’actualité du port de Lorient et de sa région. , France.

Temenos (Wavre/Paret), currently down to 10th position at 1800hrs FT polling, exploded her gennaker during last night and Wavre says it is totally irreparable. As the duo were bringing down the shreds, the boat bore away suddenly on a surf Surf #Surf and the main sail hit the backstay, breaking the battens in the process. The seas & wind are too big for them to safely carry out batten changes so they are under genoa, staysail and main with 3 reefs.

SME-Negoceane (ex-Gartmore), skippered by Spaniard Javier Sanso paired with Eric Dumont, stopped dead in the water during an 18 knot surf, to find that a whale had got itself stuck between the two rudders! Thankfully, Sanso reported no damage, which must have been a relief as he was on board when the rudder broke during the last leg of the EDS Atlantic Challenge. The ’green speed Speed #speedsailing -machine’ is currently in 8th position, 131 miles behind the leading boat, Ecover.

Sixth placed Sollac Atlantique, skippered by two expert Figaro sailors Joe Seeten & Eric Drouglazet reported that they had torn their spinnaker as they were getting it down on the deck, finding it hard to furl. Joe, a sailmaker by profession, is attempting to repair it and they have a reserve spinnaker, but smaller. Bobst Group - Armor Lux, the transatlantic record Record #sailingrecord breaking boat of Bernard Stamm, has declared that it will make a technical stop to pick up a replacement spinnaker, and no doubt will sacrife their 5th place in the fleet.

Setrabio, the ex-Cray Valley, in the Open 50 class, may also make a pit-stop in Madeira as the spinnaker has wrapped itself around the forestay and cannot be unfurled, even after a mast climb.

Mary Ambler

Multihull Fleet Positions at 1800hrs FT - DTF (nm)

1. Belgacom 4243.1m 2. Bonduelle +4.5m 3. Groupama +9.2

Monohull Open 60 Fleet Positions at 1615hrs GMT - DTF (nm)

1. Ecover 3365.6m 2. Sill Plein Fruit 3.5m 3. Voila.fr 32.7m

Monohull Open 50 Fleet Leaders at 1645hrs GMT - DTF (nm)

1. One Dream - One Mission 3520.6m 2. Tredicci +46.4m



Head news