It’s official. Obviously, this is the greatest disappointment of the Vendée Globe, since the British sailor Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss), one of the favorites of the event, and second four years ago, had to abandon the race. race this Saturday.
At around 8 p.m. on Friday 27 November, 19 days after the start of the Vendée Globe, Thomson informed his technical team on land of a damage to the starboard rudder of his Hugo Boss boat. He had been sailing a good part of the afternoon at over 20 knots before these problems arose.
His team immediately advised him to disconnect the rudder to regain the helm. He had thus been able to regain control of his boat, but with only one rudder (out of both), and he was safe and harmless on board.
He has since taken the direction of Cape Town in South Africa to repair the damage. Thomson had already experienced a first problem a few days earlier while leading the race. He then demoted to an anonymous 15th place. More than 700 nautical miles (nearly 1300 km) from the leader, Frenchman Charlie Dalin (Apivia).
Thomson is currently approximately 1,800 nautical miles from Cape Town and it is expected that the skipper will take approximately seven days to complete the voyage and make landfall.
VIDEO. Vendée Globe: when the skippers repair their mast at a height of 30 m
