At 1030 hours this Monday 5th December 2016, Sébastien Josse, skipper of the IMOCA Edmond de Rothschild, contacted his shore team to warn of a major damage to the port foil of the Mono60 Edmond de Rothschild. Whilst sailing on port tack in a W'ly air flow of between 30 and 35 knots and in heavy seas with waves of over 4 metres, the Mono60 Edmond de Rothschild went into overspeed in a surf and had to deal with a large "crash" at the bottom of the wave. The stop was brutal and, in the shock, the port foil came down violently. It then came into direct contact with its high hold, damaging the top of the appendage and its tuning system. It was approximately 600 miles west of the longitude of Cape Leeuwin.
Indeed, since yesterday, Sébastien Josse has had to deal with some very tough conditions ahead of a tropical depression from Madagascar.
In order to secure the foil, which was threatening to come out of its hold, which could have had consequences for the appendage well and the structural integrity of this part of the boat, Sébastien Josse gybed to change tack and sail on his starboard foil for a temporary repair. Gitana 16 was then heading north-northeast towards Australia, but for safety reasons, she couldn't keep this course for too long. Indeed, this is precisely the trajectory of the heart of the low, which the sailor has been trying to avoid for the past 24 hours by making headway as quickly as possible eastwards along the EEZ (Antarctic Exclusion Zone). According to the latest forecasts, the sailor would have had to deal with winds of 50 knots and very heavy seas with 10 metre high waves. As such since 1400 hours, Edmond de Rothschild's Mono60 has been back on course to the SE.
At the moment, the skipper is in contact with his team and is looking for a solution.
