François Gabart and the SVR-Lazartigue victims of damage and forced to turn around

A little less than three days after its departure, the maxi trimaran hit an OANI, an unidentified object or animal, which forced it to turn around, during the night from Monday to Tuesday.

The SVR-Lazartigue trimaran must already abort its attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy. Departing on the morning of Saturday November 30, François Gabart's crew hit an OANI, an unidentified object or animal, on the night of Monday December 2 to Tuesday December 3, between the Azores and Cape Verde. “Oseverely damaged the starboard foil, probably following an impact. Difficult to say because we were sailing in rather tough conditions, there were 25/30 knots downwind, so it was going rather quickly and it was already hitting quite a bit in the waves. But suddenly the feeling was a little different from what we felt in the waves before, so we stopped.”explained François Gabart in his team’s press release.

After analyzing the damage with the five other members of the team, the decision was made to turn around towards the home port, Concarneau (Finistère), which it should reach this weekend. “OI turned around because it seemed difficult anyway that this foil could last a whole trip around the world. It's obviously hard, because we weren't that bad, the boat was going well, it was going quickly downwind.”he continues.

But with damage only a few days after departure, the possibility of making a new attempt in the coming weeks remains: “There is still hope, it is not over. We are still at the beginning of winter, at the start of stand-by. We have a second foil and there are still many things possible,” the skipper tried to be positive.

For its part, Thomas Coville's trimaran Sodebo Ultim 3, which left on November 29 to attack Francis Joyon's record (40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes) established in 2017, and which was narrowly ahead of the SVR -Lazartigue, continue on your way.

After passing the Azores on Monday afternoon, it should approach the Doldrums in the coming hours. At the same stage of his attempt, Françis Joyon was a little ahead of the two boats according to the Sodebo team's mapping software, and was already approaching the Canaries.