As the race directors had announced, the weather conditions for the solo sailors in the Vendée Globe were going to get tougher! And the dismasting of the IMOCA Spirit of Yukoh is an example of that. Kojiro Shiraishi had indicated on Saturday 3rd December at the end of the day that the wind had risen another notch (35-40 knots) and that he had passed under D-3 (breeze jib) and three reefs in the mainsail.
Except that during the night, when the boat was sailing in about 20 knots of wind, Kojiro, inside the boat, heard the mast break. The spar broke, above the second spreader deck. The Japanese skipper is in contact with his shore team to assess the damage and the possibility of continuing the race aboard Spirit of Yukoh.
Kojiro has since climbed the mast to extract the broken part and disconnect it from the rigging. The operation has been successfully completed. Unfortunately, it was impossible to repair the broken mast, so the skipper of Spirit of Yukoh was forced to abandon the race.
"At 0330 UTC, I heard the sound of my broken mast. I quickly went outside to look around and found that the mast had broken at the second spreader. I was able to climb up the mast to remove the broken part of the rigging. I'm not injured, I don't need any help and I'm heading for Cape Town. I would like to apologise to all the people who have followed me and encouraged me so far and thank you to all my sponsors for accompanying me on this great adventure" explained the Japanese sailor.
The strong wind blowing over almost all the South Seas has caused several damages. First of all Jeremie Beyou (Maître Coq) had to lower his mainsail during the night due to a problem with the mainsail head carriage: he is heading north-east, towards the island of Amsterdam in the middle of the Indian Ocean, in order to intervene on less choppy seas.
Arnaud Boissières (Le Mie Câline) also experienced the same problem during the night, 350 miles south-west of South Africa, as the wind remained manageable (25-30 knots) but the seas deepened. Finally in Cape Town, Vincent Riou (PRB) set out from South Africa mid-morning on Saturday with part of his shore crew heading towards Brittany.
