Transat Jacques Vabre: Safran & Prince Bretagne out
Images: Prince de Bretagne Sialing Voile & Safran Sailing Team Olivier Blanchet / DPPI –
Some months ago while presenting Gitana IMOCA 60 we pointed out the following regarding the intrincate design solutions for top oceanic crossing monohulls:
“….Of course they are trying to win its own Class but imagine an AC90 going this way? It would be hilarious. Don´t get me wrong, these developments are great, and new Mono foil assisted designs looked tremendous weapons, I just would focus on less complicated solutions needed for Gitana MOD70 than having such a reliability critical aspects like canting keels, and else mentioned above.
Next IMOCA oceanic race might not be won by the most extreme and fastest design in the end but by the those finishing in one piece …….”
And this is exactly what happened with Safran new foil developments. In the other hand Prince de Bretagne Trimaran keeps reminding us that racing Multihulls still have the chance to capsize and no automatic solutions can prevent, at the moment, these dangerous situations.
Below reports by Transat Jacques vabre official web www.transat-jacques-vabre.com
Safran:
“The area around the foils is seriously damaged. There is a leak here on the starboard side of the boat. It has spread around the foils area, the compartment bulkhead areas in front and behind are area affected in the front and rear of that area. After the incident we tacked, we are on the tack now to return to France. It is 150 miles to Brest in the right direction. We did not have so much sea it was 3-4 meters waves, 25-knot wind, conditions that we had seen before. We were sailing the boat close to the to the maximum level. It was not particularly rough. It was going quickly, so the boat was of jumping, but nothing extraordinary. We should get there in the middle of the night. We are sailing at a speed of 13-15 knots, so we still have a good ten hours before arriving. “
Prince de Bretagne:
– Lionel, can you go tell us about the capsize, what happened?
“I did not see much because I was in the boat. We were upwind with the staysail, in a sea, with between 15 and 17 knots of wind. Ten minutes before I had discussed with Bilou whether to place the solent or not. I do not know what happened, I just had time to jump out and catch Bilou to catch him as he fell. Was it a wave, or gust or both, it’s hard to say … It’s hard because we’d been through most of the bad weather and the weather was really OK
– How did you feel at that time?
“It is the sky falling on your head. I went through this two years ago. Reliving the same thing twice, it comes rushing back. I have not thought about the Transat itself but the boat, all this amount of work and energy we spent on that Maxi80 Prince de Bretagne to get here. It is terrible to see all those efforts go up into the air in the space of two seconds and then you think of the consequences from here on. ….
Full report at https://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com:8080/en/lionel-lemoinchois-explains-what-happened
