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9:57 PM Fri 26 Dec 2008 GMT
The BT shore team received a call from skipper S?bastien Josse today at 11:47 GMT, reporting having been knocked down by the raging seas generated by the storm the leaders have been negotiating overnight. Last night in a 60 knot (110 km/h) squall, the BT IMOCA 60 was knocked flat by a large breaking wave.
The boat was pinned down on her side, with the top of the mast under the water and a violent sea pummeling the yach for several minutes before coming back upright, causing a great deal of damage onboard BT.
The inside of the boat is in total disarray, and the conditions outside remain fierce - and too dangerous to inspect the rudders which have suffered some damage the extent of which is not yet clear. Down below, considerable damage is already obvious though - three separate cracks in the coach roof, including a longitudinal one which is leaking water in to the cabin when water comes over the deck, albeit at a manageable rate, and serious damage to the bulkhead that joins the roof to the deck around the hatch. The structural damage is not considered a danger to boat or skipper, but how much can be repaired, and how competitive S?bastien will be able to be for the rest of this epic race, is not yet known. Also s a result of the mast being well under the water, the masthead wind instruments have been lost.
S?bastien has to complete his inspection of the boat and inform his technical shore crew who will be able to establish a plan for repairs, but right now, with still 45 knots of wind (83 km/h) and a very rough sea, there is not much the skipper can do apart from trying to escape north , possibly for up to 36 hours, to find calmer conditions. He plans to lift one of the misaligned rudders to enable him to set the staysail and make faster progress to the north. Everything in the boat has been thrown around, and as the skipper told his team 'I can't even find the camera to take a picture of the damage to send back!'
The circumstances as related by S?bastien.
'Yesterday evening I decided to go further north to avoid the worst of the storm, choosing a more conservative approach than my rivals perhaps, but conditions were in any case horrendous with breaking waves and squalls up to a steady 65 knots (120 km/h), with hail and snow. I was sailing conservatively with 3 reefs in the main and staysail up, in the dark, when I was knocked down by a wave. The boat heeled over to at least 110? with the top of the mast in the water. I was convinced it was going to go all the way. It took me five minutes to get a clear idea of what had happened, but the key parts of the boat are ok - mast, keel and she's floating! The main goal now is to just get north away from the storm so I can better assess the situation - right now its hell out there on deck'
Position at the time of the incident: 47?37' S - 159?14' W (approx. 1000 miles ESE off Wellington, NZ).
www.btsebjosse.com
by Seb Josse and BT media
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