On Saturday, when he arrived in Les Sables d'Olonne, after his forced U-turn on Wednesday, he announced the color: "If we are able to repair, yes of course we will start again".
And to give ourselves until Monday, and the general inspection of the boat to decide whether the shock with the ofni and the other worries on board were fatal or not.
The verdict is in this Monday at 4 p.m.
During a press conference on Zoom, Jérémie Beyou (Charal) announced that he would take to the sea again.
“The boat will be ready tomorrow morning (Tuesday) and I'll be ready to leave with the afternoon tide.
We are aiming for an exit around 3:15 p.m.
This is great news.
15-20 people added their skill to make this possible.
The Vendée Globe is a team race and they have once again shown that with willpower, we can work miracles.
It's great news, the race will resume, of course differently, but it will resume for me tomorrow ”.
"READ ALSO -
Vendée Globe: the Corum L'Epargne has dismasted, Troussel is not injured
Good news for Jérémie Beyou, his sponsor, but also the race which needs a headliner like that of the triple winner of the Soliaire.
And we salivate in advance to see him fully engaged in a boat hunt and a (perhaps) fantastic comeback.
With a boat repaired by a team of "madness" which "put its guts": "The most problematic damage that made me turn around was the rudder damage, he said. explained but technically, the most difficult damage to repair was that of the sheet bar bulkhead, structural part of the boat, which was completely broken.
It was first necessary to have the damage appraised, to see to where the water had infiltrated and therefore to see what had to be repaired, to put forward the hypotheses of repair and reinforcement on both sides.
So it took a lot of skills to fix it in record time with bad weather.
We also had to deal with problems with the wind vane, the aerials which had been changed, the mainsail which had been damaged in the various consecutive gybes ”.
"I did not look at the rankings, I cut the social networks"
Jeremiah Beyou
Asked about his state of mind, the Breton did not hide: "I'm not used to not telling the truth, it's not easy, I've been through all the states, but it is true that I was happy to be out of that, I needed to cut the boat and the race.
I did not look at the rankings, I cut social networks and for all that I wanted to be next to my team who was working so that I could go back (...) It allowed me to recharge my batteries and to see the enthusiasm that there was behind the project and all the emotion that it created among people, the will of the public, Charal employees, the media, friends.
I had to go back ”.
And to admit that he did not quite cut everything (in particular the follow-up of Alex Thomson on Instagram which he congratulated for his first place): “I learned for the dismasting of Nicolas (Troussel) this morning, I'm super sad for him and his whole team.
I know all the energy it takes to get a project like this going and to have a Vendée Globe.
This is terrible.
I think of them a lot today. ”
"READ ALSO -
Vendée Globe: Destremau's cardboard cap is" no longer waterproof ", the sailor has" super pain in his back "
Inevitably, during this press conference (which is no longer one, given that journalists can only ask questions, only a member of the Vendée Globe organization), a question was put to him on his goal now in the race.
“You go to try to win a race and it's all behind me, you have to build something different.
The idea now is to take the events one after the other (…) and then we will see what happens, I prefer not to wait for anything, not to set myself goals.
We'll see".
And we'll see, let's bet it, that Jérémie Beyou, big favorite in this Vendée Globe cut short in its tracks by a badly placed ofni, will manage to write a beautiful page in this round the world, even if victory eludes him.
Read also
Vendée Globe sailors declare war on the "ofni"