The year 2020 will not have been good for Sébastien Simon. The young skipper of the foiler Arkéa Paprec had already suffered numerous damages to the foils of his boat, preventing him from completing several races.
As he took part in his first Vendée Globe - a race that motivated him to climb the many rungs of his ocean racing career - he was forced to retire after nearly a month at sea. On Wednesday 3rd December, he collided with a UFO, causing major damage to the starboard foil and an ingress of water, while he was in 4th place.
Heading north to secure his boat while working with his team to find a solution, he has just announced his withdrawal from the race. It is impossible to carry out repairs alone.
When he could not resign himself to giving up, studying all the possibilities open to him, he had to resolve himself. He is the 3 skipper to end his race after Nicolas Troussel (Corum l'Epargne) and Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) All three are sailing on latest-generation IMOCA hydrofoil boats.
"It's time for me to make a decision. The team and I have given a lot of thought to possible repairs. But in order to consider them, I had to sacrifice my foil, cut it. It's a very massive piece, weighing 300 kilos. Then we would have had to repair the hull from the outside and on deck to make the foil well watertight. To do that, I had no choice but to divert to Cape Town. These repairs were going to be very complicated. Probably four or five days' work, not counting the bulkhead repairs and a problem I discovered on my aft rudder sleeve which generated a second leak... The weather forecast for my arrival in Cape Town was very unfavourable, so I wouldn't have been able to tackle the repairs until two or three days after my arrival. Above all, it's not reasonable, as there was no guarantee that the repairs would hold up for the rest of the race. I can't go on. I didn't think I'd stop there, I was fourth in the Vendée Globe. I thought I would succeed in doing something on this Vendée?! I gave it all I had. I put a lot of passion and energy into it, I wanted to do it. The adventure ends there. I'm sorry for everyone. All my partners supported me to the end. All that gives me only one desire: to leave again, to be there in four years. It was a great experience, a unique opportunity. Thank you all so much for allowing me to do this beautiful project with this beautiful boat."
