Le
Défi Atlantique - Virbac Dismasts Overnight,
Skipper Safe And Sound
Virbac,
skippered by Jean-Pierre Dick, dismasted at 0200hrs
GMT. Race HQ was alerted to something abnormal
happening as his boat speed had dropped from 10
knots to less than 3 knots. VIRBAC'S shore team
called to confirm the dismasting and to confirm
that the skipper was safe and well.
*
TEAM COWES takes back 4th position overnight 118.4
miles behind the new overnight Leader PRB (Vincent
RIOU). Front runners are now North West of the
Cape Verde Islands.
*
ECOVER (Golding) reported hitting a large unidentified
floating object earlier this morning. AT RACING
(Alex Thompson) has started to chase down the
leading pack after gybing east at 0900 yesterday
morning to hook into a low pressure system. Thomson
reported constant speeds of 18.7 knots during
the night .
IN DETAIL
Virbac,
skippered by Jean-Pierre Dick, has dismasted.
At 0200hrs GMT the race HQ was alerted to something
abnormal happening to the boat as speed had dropped
from more than 10 knots for several hours and
then suddenly stopped at less than 3 knots boat
speed.
The
race director immediately tried to reach Jean-Pierre
on the boat, but communication was not possible.
The confirmation came very soon after hearing
from Jean-Pierre's shore team that he had in fact
dismasted, and they had been in touch with their
skipper to acknowledge his status. At the time,
Jean-Pierre had left his westerly option and was
heading NE trying to chase down the leading boats.
In yesterday's sat phone chat, Jean-Pierre Dick
had said: "I want more than anything to finish
the Défi Atlantique, but if I can get onto
the podium too it would be a real bonus."
These goals were shattered overnight with still
over 2,000 miles to cover - half the race course.
Golding
was down below when ECOVER hit a semi-submerged
object which resulted in some small damage to
the bow. The object also struck a daggerboard
and then the keel. Golding has since had the daggerboard
up and confirmed that it was not damaged. In a
call to his shore team he said, "Fortunately
there is no big damage, as the bow is designed
to take an impact of this sort, so this shouldn't
slow me down too much, but it was a scary moment."
In
a brief phone call from Nick he reported all is
well onboard but currently has frustratingly little
wind, between 5 & 8 knots. All eyes right
now are on Alex Thompson who appears to have hooked
into a good system which could sling shot him
through the fleet, "after what looked like
a risky move west it has all come good and Thompson
is on fire" commented Moloney.
LE DEFI POSITIONS 10.12.03 1100GMT:
Pos/Skippers Name/Boat Name/Lat/Long/DTL/DTF
1st
Vincent Riou / PRB / N245876 / W0282348/ 0 / 1848.6
2nd Mike Golding / Ecover / N235980 / W0275050
/ 31.3 / 1879.9 3rd Sébastien Josse / VMI/
N225712 / W0275980 / 88.4 / 1937.0 4th Nick Moloney
/ TEAM COWES / N222236/ W0280136 / 118.4 / 1967.0
5th Alex Thomson / AT Racing / N255888 / W00334648/
138.4 / 1987.0 6th Jean Pierre Dick / Virbac /
N212644 / W0303588 / 243.7/ 2092.3 7th Joe Seeten
/ Arcelor-Dunkerque / N202072/ W0295048 / 275.5/
2124.1 8th Benoît LEQUIN / Wel.network /
N190364 / W0290364/ 318.7/ 2167.3 9th Benoît
PARNAUDEAU / Colibri / N171996 / W0311220 / 470.0
/ 2318.6 10th Anne LIARDE / Gonna Gitcha / N152004
/ W0312572 / 580.1 / 2428.7
For Race Information go to www.defi-atlantique.org
