February 2, 2019
Spindrift 2: failure again
Skipper Jan Guichard and the crew of the maxi-trimaran Spindrift 2 were forced to stop the non-stop race around the world last night. The reason – serious damage to the right steering wheel.
Guichard informed the coastal team about the breakdown yesterday at 16.06 UTC (June 19, Moscow time). He informed that the catamaran reduced the speed to 15 knots and that the crew needed several hours to thoroughly analyze the situation. At that moment, Spindrift 2 was 1,200 nautical miles from Cape Luwin.
Three hours later, the skipper came back in touch and reported that the steering wheel was badly damaged and that carrying out repair work on the go is too great a risk.
“We have no other choice but to stop the struggle for the establishment of a world record. This is a terrible blow for the whole team, ”Guichard stated and added. “Now we are moving towards the youthful east coast of Australia, which we plan to achieve in four days.”
Sad result. Moreover, for 16 days and more than 11 thousand nautical miles, Spindrift 2 was ahead of the IDEC-SPORT tri-schedule with skipper Francis Juillon, who has owned Jules Verne Trophy since 2017.
At the same time, we recall that for Spindrift 2 and Gishara, this is already the fourth unsuccessful attempt to set a world world record.
In 2016, the team was forced to stop the race, when only 2600 miles remained to the finish line, because of the massive anticyclone that would have to go around the edge. Guichard made a second attempt in early January last year, but within a few hours after the start he gave the command to return to the port. Finally, after a few more days, Spindrift 2 took off again, but lost the mast in the very first day of the race.
Just the same evil rock …
319 February 2, 2019 # 8765
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