Clarisse Crémer, who is participating in her 2nd Vendée Globe, lost the main sail of her boat last night off the Portuguese coast.
A huge blow to morale. Less than three days after the departure of the 10e edition of the Vendée Globe, Clarisse Crémer lost, last night, the main sail of her boat (large gennaker MH0) off the Portuguese coast.
It was around 4 a.m. when the sail deployed unexpectedly before ending up in the water. And with this mishap, the Frenchwoman risks seeing her navigation be strongly impacted, particularly in periods of light weather.
“It’s what we call a hellish night on a boat. I had a technical problem. (…) The end that holds the sail has blown. It unfolded, while I was under another sail, and it made a huge knot. Hell, what…” she detailed, very affected by this heavy loss.
“The sail ended up in the water, it’s a double penalty. This is clearly not the mark I want to leave in the ocean. I’m a little ashamed, I admit, but I had no choice,” added Clarisse Crémer, who was just starting to gain confidence after a complicated start.
“It’s not joy. I was sailing carefully, I wasn't super proud of myself these last few days but I had the impression of getting into a real Vendée Globe rhythm, quite serene in my head, even if I wanted to be a little faster. I felt the confidence coming, well the confidence, we'll talk about that later. What hell, it was really horrible, I had a horrible 1h30,” said the navigator, who suffered “a few burns on her hands”.
The rest of the race promises to be difficult and far from easy for Clarisse Crémer, who was in 29th place.e place (out of 40) at the last score. Even if she has no intention of giving up. “I lost a lot of energy but the race is still long,” she said, no doubt hoping for better days.
