Article



Race Direction of the Vendée Globe solo round the world race took a call at 0310hrs CET this morning from Louis Burton on Bureau Vallée. He reported that he had been hit a glancing blow by a trawler on the port side of his IMOCA Open 60.

At the time Bureau Valley was about 400 Nm west of Lisbon. He was asleep in the cockpit with his AIS and radar both active. At the time he was making around 18kts with 32kts of SW’ly wind which was making visibility limited.

Burton quickly turned to a NE’ly, downwind course, securing the rig. He found a shroud damaged about 1.8m off the deck. The skipper is fine and is waiting for sunrise (around 0930hrs CET) to make a more complete assessment of the damage to the port shroud before making any decisions.