A hard blow for Armel Le Cléac’h, one of the favorites of the Route du rhum who slender Wednesday from Saint-Malo.
The skipper of the Ultim Maxi Banque Populaire XI broke his daggerboard and turned back towards Lorient where he is expected “around midnight to examine his boat and advise to resume the sea serenely towards Guadeloupe”said the organizers of the solo race on Thursday evening.
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“Armel heard a creak without any apparent shock. He noticed the breakage of the daggerboard under the bottom of the boat’s hull”explains his team.
“Armel told us about this breakage which requires him to return to Lorient so that we can analyze the situation. Armel is safe, the road to reach our technical base will be in manageable conditions”, specifies Ronan Lucas, the director of the Banque Populaire team in a press release.
A change of drift envisaged
According to the first analyses, there is no structural problem on the boat. Only the drift is affected. If this hypothesis is confirmed, the Armel Le Cléac’h team can change it once the skipper is moored. There is a spare fin in the technical base. This operation should take many hours. Armel Le Cléac’h will not leave, whatever happens, not before midday on Friday.
A new setback for the native of Morlaix. During the last edition, he had already capsized off the Azores at the helm of his giant of the seas, Maxi Banque Populaire IX.
In total, eleven boats undertook a technical stopover and four skippers retired.