Big problems for the Guyot sailing team: The Franco-German crew with co-skipper Robert Stanjek has to end the king’s stage of the Ocean Race prematurely due to damage to the hull. Boris Herrmann is also struggling with major problems: his boat loses an important sail.
The French-German sailing team Guyot has had to give up the king’s stage of the Ocean Race. The crew, with German co-skipper Robert Stanjek, found about 600 nautical miles southeast of Cape Town near the 40th parallel south that the boat had damage to the hull structure.
“Unfortunately, given the current position of the boat and the distance to arrive at the destination port of Itajai, it is better for the crew and the integrity of the boat to return to Cape Town,” said Guyot’s Technical Director Thomas Cardrin. The third stage is the longest section of the Ocean Race at 23,600 kilometers and is called the “monster stage” by the participants. From Cape Town it also goes through the Southern Ocean. The destination is Itajai in Brazil.
In the Southern Ocean, on day three of leg three, the crew was in second place and traveling well at 20 knots when they heard two consecutive bangs in the morning. During an initial quick check, the team led by French skipper Benjamin Dutreux discovered abnormal movements in the hull bottom of the boat.
A thorough inspection of the damage is only possible after returning to Cape Town, it said. Only then will a decision be made as to whether the team can continue the entire Ocean Race. In addition to Stanjek, French skipper Benjamin Dutreux, navigator Sébastien Simon, Annie Lush from Great Britain and on-board reporter Charles Drapeau are also affected.
Boris Herrmann’s team Malizia also suffered a setback on the king’s stage. The crew lost an important sail on Tuesday evening. The large Code Zero-type headsail had come loose without warning from its latch lock in the mast top of the “Malizia – Seaexplorer” and had fallen into the water. With moderate wind and wave conditions in the Southern Ocean, co-skipper Will Harris managed to fix the problem.
The downwind sail wrapped itself around the keel and foils. “Now it has a huge hole,” Herrmann said. “We pulled it back on deck and stowed it below deck through the forecastle hatch. This problem cost us a good hour of work and caused us to drift backwards. We lost at least 20 nautical miles and a sail! But all are well , everyone did a good job.”
The ocean race teams may have a maximum of eight sails on board per stage. The sailing wardrobe is carefully coordinated with a view to the expected winds of a stage. With the Code Zero, Team Malizia is now missing an important sail in the fight for stage success. On day three of the “monster stage” of the circumnavigation, Kevin Escoffier’s Swiss team Holcim-PRB continued to lead.
