“The Cam was incredible, he called me every hour”, breathes Benjamin Ferré after a major damage repaired

After Maxime Sorel, Louis Burton and this Sunday Pip Harte, Benjamin Ferré believed that he in turn was going to have to give up during this 10^e edition of the Vendée Globe. Victim of a damaged keel cylinder (the cylinder allows it to be tilted), the skipper recounted his misadventure after hours of repairs last night, helped by his technical team. “ It was the most intense hours I have experienced on a boathe breathed, clearly exhausted. In the middle of a nap, I heard a huge bang. I wake up with a start, I get out of the bunk, I see oil exploding all over the boat, the keel moving downwind. Exactly the same scenario as during the Transat CIC where I broke my hydraulic cylinder which holds the keel, and which came aft and shattered the entire bottom of the hull. The diagnosis was made quite quickly: there was a fixing on the cylinder which literally exploded and shattered part of the cylinder material and caused an oil leak.”

In conjunction with his technical team, Benjamin Ferré was able to count on the telephone assistance of another competitor, who is none other than Jean Le Cam, the two men having exchanged a lot before the start during the preparation of this tour of the world. “ The technical team was mobilized all night. After 12 hours of effort, well relayed by Jean le Cam who was incredible, who accompanied me all night, who found solutions for me, brought ideas. He called me every hour last night. It was hard, restless work. I am tired, totally exhausted, my body is stiff. I can no longer shake my hands. It's both physical and emotional aftershocks because I've been through all the different states. I really thought the Vendée Globe was over. Most of the night, I was looking at how to get to Australia in Perth so that the team could intervene on the boat. I was already thinking about finishing this world tour outside of the race. »

A trauma

And the sailor added: “ I went through all the emotional states. Now I have to rest but I have a bit of “beanbag trauma”: as soon as I sit down in it, the slightest noise makes me jump out of the bunk. I will have to manage to resolve this little trauma to be able to rest because if all goes well there is still half a world tour to do“. And not the easiest. Contacted by Le Figaro last Wednesday, he admitted his pleasure at being at sea, as much as the difficulty facing navigation in the seas of the great south. Here he is deeply into the subject.