Sill retires

And then there were five in the 1000 Milles de Calais

After a brave effort to make the start line of the 1000 Milles de Calais just 12 days after her launch, Roland Jourdain's new Open 60 Sill has been forced to retire from the race with teething problems.

Jourdain says there has been some delamination of the material 'between the keel and the bulb' [presumably the filler] and the crew would rather nurse the boat home and fix this rather than continue. The keel foil on board both Sill and Bonduelle is made from solid carbon fibre and this may be flexing more than was anticipated.

Presumably some noises from the keel warned Jourdain that all was not well for this morning while mid-Channel he dived over the side to take a closer look.

The news came at 2010 French time this evening when Jourdain reported that they would be heading for their home port of Concarneau or Port la Forêt, 200 miles Brittany and hope to make port by tomorrow afternoon. The seas are flat and the conditions good for this passage..

Meanwhile at 17:40 GMT today Sill's sistership Bonduelle was holding a lead of just 0.3 mile over Mike Golding's Ecover. Both boats were around 25 miles SSE of Start Point make use of the last of the favourable time.