This Friday morning at 5:13 a.m. Paris time, Eric Péron warned his technical team and the race direction that his starboard rudder was damaged.
With an uncontrollable rudder and no spare rudder sector to attempt a makeshift repair, Eric cannot envisage attacking the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
450 miles from the Cape of Good Hope, the ULTIM ADAGIO re-gybed this morning to head towards Cape Town, South Africa.
The skipper explains:
“I had been gybing towards the south for two hours to stay ahead of the cold front with which I had been accelerating well for two days and unfortunately, my windward rudder must have hit something on the surface.
It twisted on itself and broke the bar sector.
I walk at reduced speed but we see that the rudder is no longer controlled.
The bar sector is completely separated from the bit.
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The entire technical team is mobilized to find solutions in order to repair as quickly as possible and allow the ULTIM ADAGIO to set sail again.
The boat is still sailing in a good West-North-West flow but will have to cross a zone of light wind tomorrow.
He is expected in Cape Town on Sunday morning.