Unidentified Floating Objects (UFOs) continue to take their toll on the Vendee Globe Race fleet. Yesterday, Sam Davies, sailing Initiatives Coeur, and Sébastien Simon, sailing Arkea Paprec, each hit UFOs which seriously damaged their boats.
Davies reports: “I was sailing at speeds between 15 and 22kts and I was actually just making a hot meal after the gybe and doing the stack and everything and it was just starting to get dark. I hit something. I did not see anything. I did not know what it was. It was pretty much dark when it happened. But it was as if I had run aground on a rock at the time. The boat speed went from 20kts to zero. The boat nosedived on the impact with the keel. I knew it was the keel. I heard a crack coming from there. I and everything else flew forwards, including my dinner which has repainted the entire inside of my boat. Everything moved. I went flying into a ring frame, luckily, because that could have been worse. It was really violent. But luckily, I have just hurt some ribs. It is not serious but really painful. But I stopped the boat, dropped the main, and went to check around the keel, the bearings, and the bulkhead. The bulkhead, the main bearing bulkheads (which support the keel box) are intact as far as I can see. The keel bearings are intact. The longitudinal structure around the keel box is all cracked. That has taken the shock of the impact of when the boat moved, that is cracked on both sides.”
Within hours of Davies’ collision, Sébastien Simon’s Arkea Paprec struck a UFO damaging the starboard foil and housing. The Vendee Globe organization reports: The starboard foil has been damaged. The lower wedge at the entry point (where the foil rests and is linked to the boat) and the foil housing (where the foil goes inside the boat) are no longer attached to the boat itself. Sébastien is doing his utmost to deal with the situation, particularly given the heavy seas and strong winds expected tonight. He has heeled the boat over to limit the ingress of water. It is not yet known how much water is entering the boat.
Simon was not injured in the collision. Both Davies and Simon are reported to be sailing north to reach calmer seas and to assess the damage to their boats.
If they are forced to withdraw from the race, as appears likely, they will be the third and fourth racers to have collided with UFOs.
Jérémie Beyou, sailing Charal, suffered a collision on the third day of the race and returned to port for repairs. He was able to reenter the race and is currently trailing the fleet.
Alex Thomson, sailing Hugo Boss, was forced to retire from the race after rudder damage from hitting what appeared to be abandoned nets. He described the damage: “Once on deck, I could see the rudder blade was broken and swinging around with a large piece of fishing gear jammed into the cracks. So I think I must have hit something. It certainly looks that way.”
Alex Thompson also hit a UFO in the 2016-2017 Vendee Globe Race, which broke off one foil. He managed to keep sailing and finished second in the race.
Could all these UFOs be semi submerged containers? There are reports of hundreds of containers lost overboard from ships every year mainly because of heavy rolling!
Perhaps these high tech yachts are not strong enough for open ocean racing?
I agree John, the yachts are close to the Agulhas current which must be a likely candidate for dropped boxes in inclement weather. Another possibility is ghost nets from fishing vessels. Humans are a messy lot on a grand scale!
To use a motor racing cliche these vessels arrive at the scene of the accident very quickly. But even at my Nic 32’s humble six knots max I would still hate to hit a floating container on a dark and stormy sea.
One of the UFO’s was declared to be a fishing net. Maybe what needs to be done is to redesign the foils. So that they are streamlined to the point that nets will slide off. The foil in the above pic has a very square edge.