PRB has hit a container

The reason was simple: the skipper had another stroke of bad luck during his voyage in the Atlantic. This time, it was a container that left its mark on PRB.As he was sailing with the wind on the beam doing 15 knots in 35 knots of wind on the evening of Monday 11th August, the monohull hit a container that Vincent was able to see in the bow wave once the incident had occurred … It was the daggerboard that suffered in this collision with the block of steel weighing several tonnes. Two-thirds of it broke off causing damage to the bottom part of the housing, leading to an ingress of water. On examining the damage, Vincent decided to head directly for Port La Forêt and informed the race directors and Vendée Globe organisers of what had happened. By controlling the heel of the boat, the ingress did not pose any real threat to Vincent and PRB.

Still 400 miles to cover...
It was therefore at two in the morning local time that PRB reached her homeport. The race organisers have asked Vincent to set sail again to finish his qualifier before the 18th October by sailing 400 miles alone. This afternoon, the boat was taken out of the water. As initially planned, PRB will be spending a few weeks in the yard. Among the jobs that need to be done: careening the entire boat, applying anti-fouling to the keel, making the hood watertight with the fitting of some new portholes in the cockpit, changing the rigging cables, a mechanical overhaul, and now there is the additional work to the daggerboard housing. A new mast will also be built at Crain in La Rochelle.
PRB is due to be relaunched on 5th September. The yachtsman from Loctudy remains positive, adding that at least before setting out on the Vendée Globe, he will have sailed many miles alone on his monohull, covering the equivalent of a third of the round the world voyage!