While the Thierry Bouchard and Olivier Krauss were stopping in Mindelo, Cape Verde, to fix electronics problems on the Multi50 Ciela Village, they noticed a slight ingress of water into the central hull. It was when they arrived at the port that they noticed a crack under the hull, in front of the daggerboard well, in the area of the assembly of the two half-shells. With 1986 nautical miles to go, the duo decided not to continue the race. They are now waiting for a more precise diagnosis to decide how to return the boat to France. We had met them before the departure. Although the boat had to undergo its baptism of fire, they were confident about their preparation To read here.
"We really wanted to do this Jacques Vabre which had been a great success for us in 2015 and it was an excellent way to make the new boat more reliable and to compete with the other Multi50s. We made a good start to the race, the boat is going fast. Then we were a little handicapped by our pilots who have not been working for 6 days. As far as the crack is concerned, we prefer not to take any risks by continuing our journey, and we will quickly make a diagnosis" said Thierry Bouchard, skipper of the Multi50.
Fred Bonnet, the boat's préparateur, a VPLP architect and the CDK Technologies manufacturer will be on site in the coming days to carry out an initial diagnosis in order to bring the boat back in good condition. A more in-depth technical expertise will then be carried out in France. The skipper - Thierry Bouchard - will fly to Salvador de Bahia to witness the arrival of the other Multi50s, whose fleet is still led by Arkema.
