Disaster for Dick

Port rudder destroyed on Paprec-Virbac 2

At around 1300hrs GMT, Jean-Pierre Dick's Paprec-Virbac 2, racing in the Vendee Globe, suffered a collision with a solid object which is reported to have removed the port rudder and most of its assembly from the stern of the yacht.

He was sailing at around 15 knots of boat speed, under mainsail and gennaker when incident happened during the hours of darkness.

The skipper reported to his shore team that he has no idea what the object was. He immediately slowed the boat, reduced sail to two reefs and a staysail and turned on to the opposite gybe so that he could steer with his starboard rudder.

His position was approximately 47 deg 49.53 S, 143 deg 08.10 W. That places him about 1700 miles south of the French Polynesian Islands, 2700 miles WNW of Cape Horn, and about 1800 miles from New Zealand.

Dick is unharmed, there is no other damage reported to the boat and he is making a compass course of about 350 degrees towards the South Pacific high pressure system which will initially provide calmer winds and seas while he and his team assess the options.