Groupama capsizes!

Groupama 3 has self-destructed and capsized in the Pacific Ocean. A disaster – but not a human tragedy, as all of the crew were safely airlifted to Dunedin on the south island of New Island. Fortunately, Groupama 3 was only 75 nautical miles east of Dunedin when the accident occurred.

This was the message that came off the boat soon after it turned over. “We have just capsized. The leeward float broke in two, leading to the breakage of the two beams and then the subsequent capsize. The crew is all together, taking refuge inside the central hull of Groupama 3. None of the 10 crew is injured. There are 5 to 7 metre waves and 25 to 30 knot winds. The seas are breaking and for the time being we’re not sending anyone outside.”

Groupama abandons Jules Verne attempt

Yachting World reports that Franck Cammas and the crew of Groupama 3 have been forced to abandon their round the world record attempt. On Monday 16 November at 12:16 GMT, Groupama 3 skipper Franck Cammas, called the Jules Verne Trophy team to inform them that an aft beam bulkhead had broken, leading to serious damage to the float. Despite the storm, Groupama 3 is slowly making headway towards Cape Town some 1,700 miles away and is therefore abandoning this Jules Verne Trophy.
At around 12:00 GMT, a big cracking sound dashed the hopes of Franck Cammas and his nine crew, when a bulkhead attached to the aft beam simply gave up in the harsh conditions as the giant trimaran was sailing with her sails angled at 90° to the true wind in a powerful NNE’ly air flow and rough seas. The crew knew they had to go fast to stay in the right sector of the warm front, hot on their heels, in order to drop down towards the Cape of Good Hope with the Brazilian low. The resulting weakness then caused the windward float to fissure and, in light of the sizeable damage, the crew immediately stopped the boat and concluded that it would be necessary to abandon this round the world attempt.

Groupama 3 har startat

Följ dem på Groupamas hemsida.