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Meanwhile, Armel Tripon (L’Occitane en
Provence) was faced with a difficult decision of his own. After two days and 14
hours, he turned back to Les Sables d’Olonne due to a broken J3 hook. However,
after consulting with his shore team, the retreat was abandoned in favor of
fixing it himself while underway. By the time he resumed racing, He’d lost
about 70nm on the fleet.
About the time of Tripon’s return to course,
Beyou’s team announced that Charal would be returning to Les Sables d’Olonne
due to undoubtably the most devastating damage of the race so far. Charal’s
Technical Director Pierre-François Dargnies reported that “it
started around 1400 on Tuesday when a sheet block tore off, which sprayed
carbon all over the cockpit. Jérémie had to do a little repair, he got in the
boat to get it all set up, and while he was inside the boat, he hit something.
In so doing the boat gybed it ended up on the
other side. He then realized that the starboard rudder was damaged. He decided
to wait for the passage of the front in last night to start the repairs on the
rudder. He tacked this morning while waiting for the sunrise to be able to
tackle this repair, but after a few hours later the starboard backstay (cable
that supports the mast from the rear) broke suddenly, probably because the
sheet block is quite close beside the backstay and the carbon shards must have
sheared it."
The damage was devastating for Beyou as he had
been one of the favorites to win the race overall and had dedicated four years
of his life to preparing for this campaign, to the point of being unable to see
his father in the hospital after a stroke due to pre-race quarantining. Alex
Thomson (Hugo Boss), one of his main adversaries, voiced his support and
sympathy, saying “it is terrible news, and nobody would wish that on anybody,
Jérémie has worked harder than anybody probably.
He has done an extra year with his boat. He has
a great team, a great technical director, he has done it all and he amazed the
world when he brought Charal out. He was the first one flying in the sky, so I
am devastated for him.” Thomson, it should be noted, has been in the same position,
forced to abandon two of his four Vendée attempts.
Soon after, fans noticed that Sebastien
Destremau (Merci) was making a wide loop and heading north again, leading to
confusion and concern. It was a few hours before answers were available, but
fortunately, it was nothing more serious than Destremau’s exhaustion catching
up to him and a few hours of inadvertent drifting while he napped.
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