Route du Rhum: damage, beaching, breakage, everything that happened in 24h of race

Once past the magnificent start off the Pointe du Grouin, from which the 123 competitors of this 11th Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe took off, under the gaze of thousands of spectators mbaded on the coast, the race was quickly animated.
And from the first miles, the first damage arrived. Several competitors stopped, either to repair or technical problems.

A float partly torn off for the leader

It was then that he was leading the fleet in front of François Gabart on Macif, that Sebastien Josse on his maxi trimaran Gitana 17 suffered major damage on Monday at dawn. Part of his starboard float was torn off while he was in the Bay of Biscay. He was taken care of by a team as he was heading towards the Spanish coast.

Breakage for Thomas Coville

By late morning on Monday, we learned that Thomas Coville Sodebo Ultim ''s maxi-trimaran had broken his front-to-port arm in the Bay of Biscay. The decision was made to divert the boat to A Coruña.

Technical stop for Le Cléac'h

Armel Le Cléac'h, one of the great favorites of the event on his Ultimate Banque Populaire, had to do a technical stop on Sunday night in Roscoff for a technical problem, a tiny piece of the generator that makes the broken energy. The repair lasted only 35 minutes but the skipper has already lost a lot of ground on his direct competitors.

In the 12.45 ranking, François Gabart on his Ultimate Macif was ahead of Armel Le Cléac'h on Banque Populaire followed by Francis Joyon on Idec Sports.

Striking a monohull clbad Rhum Mono

Shortly before 9pm this Sunday, Willy Bissainte (C 'Guadeloupe) informed the race management that he had stranded on the island Rouzic, the most easterly of the archipelago of Sept-îles. His 50-foot monohull was lying on his side, victim of a waterway. The skipper unleashed his distress beacon. The skipper was rescued by SNSM Ploumanach around 22 hours.

Technical stop for Erwan Le Roux

In Multi50, Erwan Le Roux, also stopped at Roscoff in the evening for a problem of saffron resulting in a waterway without gravity. He left after four hours of repairs.

Other skippers experienced minor technical problems that they solved at sea. Jean Galfione, skipper of Clbad40 Serenis Consulting, warned this Monday morning his technical team that he was heading to Brest for a technical stop. The skipper should arrive in late morning in Brest.

Many competitors, mostly Clbad40, who are still waiting for Monday to make the decision to take shelter in a Breton port to avoid the big depression expected Monday night with winds at 40 knots and troughs several meters.