A new adventure began for the British Pip Hare who was heading Monday morning under a makeshift rig towards Australia, after the dismasting in the South Seas of her sailboat Medallia which forced her to abandon the Vendée Globe.
The dismasting took place at 10:45 p.m. French time on Sunday (9:45 p.m.), when she was in 15th position in the race. The causes of this major damage, the first dismasting of the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe, are not yet known.
“I don’t know what happened. (After a wave) Medallia landed and at that moment, the mast collapsed,” explained Pip Hare, during a video broadcast late in the morning by the race.
“This is not good news (…) This is the end of our adventure in this Vendée Globe 2024,” she added, moved to tears, assuring that she was in good health and that the rest of the boat had been spared.
“She is heading towards Australia and has not requested assistance” at this stage, race management said on Monday in a message sent to AFP.
Very experienced, the 50-year-old sailor quickly managed to assemble a makeshift rigging to reach land, around 800 nautical miles (nearly 1,500 km) from her position on Monday.
Athanasius: « I called the race to offer my help”
The sailor was at the time of the damage only a hundred miles from one of her competitors, Romain Attanasio (Fortinet – Best Western), who explained on Monday that he had not been asked by the race director to go to the ‘help.
“I called the race to offer my help, but her hull is not damaged and she is not injured,” reassured Attanasio, 47, himself the victim of a dismasting during another race. a few weeks before the Vendée Globe.
“I messaged her and told her I was sad. She told me that she was going to cry for a few months… It took a toll on me and I am sailing with 3 knots less this morning,” he added.
The two sailors have been sailing for a little over 24 hours in a low-pressure zone 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.”
In the 2008 Vendée Globe, sailor Loïck Peyron also dismasted in the middle of the Indian Ocean, 2,600 miles from Australia. Aboard the Gitana Eighty, he had reached dry land safely after weeks of navigation under makeshift rigging.
Battered fleet
Pip Hare, 19th at the end of the race in 2021, was expected within a big week on the Australian coast. This is the 3rd abandonment of this 10th edition after Maxime Sorel (V and B – Monbana – Mayenne) and Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée).
Relatively spared by the weather conditions during the descent of the Atlantic, the Vendée Globe fleet has been battered for more than ten days by difficult conditions in the Indian Ocean.
In strong winds and heavy seas on Friday, skipper Damien Seguin (Apicil) discovered a hole in the hull of his boat before being ejected by a wave, injuring his face and neck.
After a big storm off the coast of Bonne Espérance, adventurer Guirec Soudée (Freelance.com) suffered a series of technical problems and was forced to take shelter in Kerguelen to repair before setting off again in 60 knots of wind.
And even at the front of the fleet, the tenacious Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubrueil), 3rd on Monday and now in the Pacific Ocean, reported the breakage of his starboard foil a little over a week ago, while he was also in the south of Australia.
Morocco
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