Damage too extensive to be repaired quickly
A few days after arriving in Cape Town, the SVR Lazartigue trimaran was taken out of the water on Sunday January 28 to assess the damage sustained 10 days earlier in the South Atlantic. In the end, the damage caused by the collision was too extensive to be repaired within a reasonable timeframe, enabling the boat to get back into the race. Team manager Cécile Andrieu explains: "When we took the boat out, we could see the extent of the damage. Given the size of the opening in the bottom of the hull, we don't think it's feasible to race her again. It would require a lot of time-consuming work, which we don't necessarily have the capacity to carry out here. So we're heading for abandonment."
Looking to the future for new projects
The team will now consider the various stages of the repair. The next step is to bring the boat back to Concarneau, either by cargo ship or ferry, with an estimated arrival in the second half of March. The work should then take three months, with the boat due to be relaunched in early summer.
Although this is the first time that Tom Laperche has had to abandon a race, he puts things into perspective. At the end of October, the skipper will embark on the Jules Verne Trophy record, another round-the-world race, this time with a crew. He concludes: "Over the next few months, we'll be continuing to make the SVR-Lazartigue trimaran more reliable and improved. Of course, I'd like to be back on the water as soon as possible, but the work involved is substantial. I hope to be back in the water by late spring, early summer. What helps me the most today, what brings me back the desire and the motivation, is to think about what's next, to imagine what we can do on the boat and think about the program. Thinking about being able to sail this magnificent boat again. It's so incredible."
