“It’s not possible!”, Louis Burton’s dismay in front of the big crack on the boat

Monday morning, Louis Burton is in 22nd place in the fleet in the Vendée Globe ranking dominated by Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable), very far from his ambitions in the 10th edition since he finished the race four years ago on the podium (3rd). Le Malouin will have a hard time repeating this performance at the helm of a damaged boat. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the sailor noticed a crack which forced him to repair for several hours to seal and solidify the structure of his Imoca.

But why does it do that, it's not possible, it was fine

Louis Burton

In a video, the sailor confides his dismay: “It’s not possible, p….! We were downwind and there was just a squall that came in. There was a crack and five minutes later two more cracks”he confided before showing the extent of the damage over several tens of centimeters. In the interior of his monohull, Burton once again shows this worrying crack and the trickle of water passing through. “Piss off. Go ahead but why is it doing that, it’s not possible, it was fine”he concluded, angrily and with a clenched jaw.

He doesn't want to think about abandonment

Despite this mishap, Burton is not considering giving up. “The boat is badly damaged, but I don't want to bring myself to give up. There are too many issues at stake in this race, I think I'm going to repair it, I'm going to do that at sea. There are too many people following the project. We will do everything to continue!” he explained. The navigator repaired in the southwest of the Canary Islands. “At the level of the cracks on the aft deck and part of the port side plating, the interior and exterior are being sanded and ground before gluing carbon parts to secure everything. All the energy of the skipper of Bureau Vallée is focused on this major repair,” his team said.