Keel problem for Veolia Environnement

Disaster for second placed Vendee Globe boat

At around 0400hrs GMT this morning, Roland Jourdain called his shore team to tell them that he has a problem with Veolia Environnement's keel.

For the moment, the boat is stable and continuing on her way towards the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores, some 640 miles to his northeast.

Towards the end of the night while sailing under mainsail and genoa, Jourdain heard a suspicious noise on board and went to investigate. He stopped the boat as he inspected it, but did not find anything unusual. It was only after trimming the sails on again that the boat took on an abnormal heel.

Jourdain concluded almost immediately that there is damage to his keel. For the moment, he does not know whether he has lost the bulb or whether the keel blade has been damaged.

Today's problem is possibly a consequence of his collision with a whale on 8 January as the boat has had no subsequent impact with any type of floating objects.

This comes as a terrible blow to Jourdain who was forced out of the last Vendee Globe also with keel issues.