She was 15th, in the fight with Romain Attanasio, a few hundred miles from the exit of the Indian Ocean, who had not spared them when the mast of Pip Hare’s boat fell on Sunday evening. This British sailor, whom the general public discovered four years ago when she changed a rudder in the open sea, had prepared her foiler for four years to compete in her second solo round-the-world trip in a more “performance” mode. successful But at 10:45 p.m. on Sunday, she saw her second Vendée Globe collapse with the loss of her mast.
“I don’t know what happened. After a wave (the seas are heavy in the Indian Ocean), Medallia landed and at that moment, the mast collapsed,” explained Pip Hare, in a video transmitted late in the morning. While it took time to contact his technical team on land and put everything back in order, Pip Hare set up a makeshift rig. The race is over, a new adventure begins.
700 miles from Australia
Some 700 miles from Australia, the British woman, safe and sound, is extremely disappointed but did not request assistance. “This is not good news. This is the end of our adventure in this 2024 Vendée Globe,” she added, moved to tears, assuring that she was in good health and that the rest of the boat had been spared. “It’s not over, it’s never over. We are going to leave again in 2025,” she continues in the image. Race management has confirmed that she is heading to Australia, which she should be able to reach in less than a week.
The sailor was at the time of the damage only a hundred miles from Romain Attanasio (Fortinet – Best Western), who dismasted in the Défi Azimut two months before the start of the Vendée Globe and explained: “I called the race to offer my help, but her hull is not damaged and she is not injured” Before continuing: “I communicated with her by messaging and I told her that I was sad. She told me that she was going to cry for a few months… It took a toll on me and I’m sailing with three knots less this morning,” he added.
The two sailors had been in a southern depression for 24 hours where “there is a super unstable wind, the sea is disgusting and a lot of squalls,” said Attanasio.
“She was a little further south than me, in a slightly less windy area. Either she took a grain, or something broke,” he tried to explain before regretting: “I was hoping to beat her, but not in these conditions.”
Swiss
