Frenchman Loic Lepage (Loïc Lepage) will no longer participate in the circumnavigation singles Golden Globe Race. 20 Oct three-meter waves and wind at 25 knots broke in two places the mast of his yacht Nicholson 32 Mk X “Lalaland”.
One of the wreckage of the mast damaged the hull near the keel and now the boat is taking on water at a speed of 160 liters per hour.
According to the official website of the Golden Globe Race (GGR), Lepage successfully cope with loss, and the threat that the ship will sink in the near future, no. Athlete forced to work the engine, which also had problems due to the admission of water into the boat, and is now moving in a northerly direction to Perth (Australia), to meet rescue vessels.
For the first time Lepage has informed race organisers about the failure of the mast around noon on 20 October. For the next five hours there were in a hurry to put a makeshift sail without assistance to get to Fremantle, to the coast of Western Australia. However, after the discovery of the leak and strong winds up to 40 knots, the Frenchman had to abandon this idea.
Closest to Lepage boat equipped with a motor, from among the participants of the regatta was Tradewind 35 Puffin American Kopara Stephen (Istvan Kopar) 480 miles East on the wind. Thus, to move towards Lepage Kopar could not.
By three o’clock Sunday morning on a request for assistance in the rescue operation responded the captain of the Beneteau 43 Alizes Ocean II Francis Toland (Toland Francis) — member of the other round-the-world regatta, and the ship Shiosai.
Lepage previously, the cost of conversion to class Chichester had already made a stop at Cape town for repairs and replenishment of water. The biggest concerns during the repair Lepage has arisen in relation to the mast. But he ventured to continue the voyage, to pursue my dream of single-handedly sailing around the world. The current Golden Globe Race he was preparing for the last three years.
Meanwhile, the yacht Rustler Ohpen Maverick Dutch party GGR Mark Slats (Slats Mark) reached the second checkpoint in Tasmania. The gap between him and race leader, 73-year-old French captain of the Rustler 36 Matmut Jean-Luc van den Heede (Jean-Luc Van Den Heede) decreased from six to five weeks. In third place, two weeks away from the Slats, on the Rustler 36 is One and All Estonian Uku, Randmaa (Uku Randmaa).
With a lag of 11 days from the Troika of leaders is the only woman participating in the race — the representative of great Britain , Susie Goodall (Susie Goodall). For the last day of her boat three times, put the mast on the water and the tanks with fresh water was almost empty.
Russian Igor Zaretsky on Endurance 35 Esmeralda is still recent. From the nearest rival it is separated by more than a week. Last week Igor had to climb the mast to attach the broken forestay. It was physically very hard work, after which the man admitted that “barely puts a cigarette in his mouth”. But the real prize for the athlete was the opportunity to observe the whale, which surfaced just ten metres from the boat.
