Vendée Globe

By taking the decision to bring his Vendée Globe to an end in the Azores on 8th January, Roland Jourdain was choosing to look after his boat. Before starting a refit, he needed to examine the full consequences that the collision with a sea mammal might have had on the boat's internal structure. The first part of the work involved preparing things for the inspection. There are now less than two months of work left for the Veolia team before the red monohull is put back in the water, which is planned for early June.

Roland Jourdain : "There was a lot of preparatory work to do, as we had to remove all the paint from inside and take out the cables from the nav desk, so that the ultrasound equipment and thermal cameras can go into all the corners. After that, the inspection showed that the damage fortunately did not extend any further into the major structural elements. So there was no more damage than what we had anticipated. That was the good news. So to summarize, we redid some of the bulkhead and the keel box. We now have to get the keel back in place. We now know why it broke. We're not talking about its solidity, but we always try to improve on things with each new keel concerning its design and manufacture."

Veolia Environnement is therefore expected to be back sailing again in early June and should be ready to head for St-Nazaire to take part in the SNSM Record. After that, she will take part in the European Pro Tour then in the Transat Jacques Vabre, which will finish in Costa Rica this year.
 

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