The two teams making Jules Verne Trophy attempts have both faced damage to their trimarans in their final approaches to the finish line off Ushant, northern France. Sodebo has suffered damage to their seaboard rudder sleeve in ferocious seas, while The Famous Project has almost completely lost the use of their mainsail
The two teams making Jules Verne Trophy attempts have both faced damage to their trimarans in their final approaches to the finish line off Ushant, northern France.
Thomas Coville’s Sodebo is this afternoon, Saturday 24 January, just 400 miles from the finish line and more than 470 miles ahead of the record pace set by Francis Joyon on Idec Sport in 2017. They are expected to finish around 0700 tomorrow, Sunday 25 January, and are currently on course to break the around the world non-stop record.
However, it will truly go to the wire and the record is likely to be broken by hours, rather than below the 40-day barrier.
Rudder damage for Sodebo
Yesterday the Ultim Sodebo sailed through winds of 40-knots while tracking around Storm Ingrid, sailing under J3 and a reefed mainsail, intentionally making slow progress to the north rather than sailing at a reaching angle – around 90° becomes a ‘no go zone’ in these conditions for the Ultim trimarans.
Despite nursing the boat in atrocious sea states, the team sent photos of the starboard rudder sleeve ripping off, the carbon shredding under force.
The starboard rudder casing can be seen shredding in the rough seas. Photo: Team Sodebo
In the team update they explain that, although dramatic, the damage should luckily have little impact.
“This incident could have affected the rudder and steering system, but fortunately the robustness of the systems allowed the steering system to remain intact. Only the rudder trim tab is lost.
“In the evening, the sleeve detached from the boat, seemingly without causing any further complications.”
Skipper Thomas Coville added: “We had a hell of an encounter with Ingrid, with gusts of over 50 knots and 8 to 10-meter swells.
“The last 36 hours have been the most difficult and longest of this attempt: we’ve damaged more things than during the entire round-the-world voyage.
“A breaking wave ripped off a support that allowed us to raise and lower the rudder, and we’re lucky because it’s still operational. Naturally, this adds extra tension and stress on board.
“Were working hard to find the physical, technical, and mental resources. This is what the crew is doing perfectly, just like the shore team that prepared the boat.”
This afternoon the boat was back up to 30-knot speeds.
Follow at https://sodebo-ultim3.sodebo.com where there will be live updates as the team approaches the finish tomorrow, with a live video broadcast of their arrival.
Famous Project loses mainsail
Meanwhile the all-female team The Famous Project are continuing on their non-stop around the world voyage despite having completely lost the use of their mainsail.
The Famous Project, skippered by Alexia Barrier together with Dee Caffari, is not in the running for an all-out circumnavigation record, but have committed to setting a benchmark time as the first all-female crew to complete the non-stop around the world lap.
The Famous Project is currently around 800 miles from the finish, mostly sailing under bare wingmast and headsail alone. The mainsail of their giant trimaran initially tore at the second reef — a setback, but manageable given the strong wind conditions they faced in Biscay. However, the mainsail then ripped from luff to leech, leaving it unable to be hoisted, and the crew were reliant on the power generated by the giant wingmast, together with a headsail.
“We are sailing with just the headboard of the mainsail plugged in and the mast (the rotational mast is 30 square metres on its own,” Caffari explained on Facebook.
After some reconfigurations, she then updated today: “The final stretch is getting smaller. We survived the storm conditions and now enjoy a slight respite for a few hours.
“In this time we have looked at how we can make best use of the sails we have available. We now have the head of the mainsail hoisted as a reef it never knew it had and the J2. This is giving us some better and more consistent boat speeds. This afternoon we will see an increase in wind but with the right angle we can make use of this with our limited sail area.
“Tomorrow will test us once more with wind and waves but we have handled it once, we will not be beaten by it now!”
The trimaran, which was formerly Idec Sport, has also lost the use of its starboard daggerboard and both autopilots have ceased functioning. Follow their progress at https://thefamousproject.io/