Vendée Globe: Destremau's cardboard cap is "no longer waterproof", the sailor has "a great back pain"

Last weekend in Les Sables d'Olonne, in the microcosm of ocean racing, the subject made some smile and annoyed others, considering Sébastien Destremau's latest “madness” to be “fanciful” or even “ridiculous”.

A few hours before the start of the Vendée Globe, the Toulonnais had decided to make a cardboard cap for Merci's cockpit, his monohull, in order to better face the spray.

With a message to get across.

"I absolutely wanted to make it out of cardboard, first of all for the sake of economy and also because I'm fed up with these boats which are all in carbon when there are plenty of things we can do differently. .

All non-structural elements should be bio-sourced materials.

It will come, ”confided the 56-year-old sailor, who was the last to arrive in Les Sables d'Olonne four years ago, after 124 days at sea.

Huge - I feel we're going to have a good time with this cardboard hut .. until Merci is renamed the SDF boat (Sebastien-Destremau-France)…)))) https://t.co / lkxVXn1oWW

- Merci.VendeeGlobe (@SDestremau) November 3, 2020

“If she doesn't - it would be amazing if she could go around the world - it really doesn't matter.

I'll get more wet, that's all, ”he added, laughing.

Strong enough to withstand the two fronts crossed by the fleet, the construction is starting to show signs of weakness.

"The front of my cap is damaged (after the boom fell on it the day before, following a rupture of a lazy jack), it is no longer waterproof and above all, the beams which hold the structure are a little broken .

I will try to repair ”, explained Friday morning the father (5 children), among the small budgets of the fleet (300,000 euros).

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"I have great back pain"

Sebastien Destremau

Plagued by multiple small galleys since the start and forced to climb his mast to repair, the former sailor of the America's Cup (five campaigns) was hurt.

“To go up the mast, as I did yesterday, you have to improve your morale!

It had to be done so that I could use all my sail configurations.

On the other hand, I have great back pain.

There were a little too many waves.

And I have bruises all over my legs.

I was lying down all afternoon yesterday.

It is painful, but it is normal, it is intense effort.

But it will pass.

I haven't opened the pharmacy yet.

There, as the conditions are good, I can stay lying on my back, ”blows the current 31st in the standings, already very far (+466 miles) from the leader Alex Thomson who is hurtling down the Atlantic towards Theta, a tropical depression which reserves a strong wind for the leaders.

Perhaps she will run out of steam over the hours to spare the cardboard cap and Destremau's back.

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