 Liz Wardley is op zondag 29 november gestart met haar tocht om een de nieuwe Solo Round the World Race te promoten. Liz Wardley is bekend uit het Mini Transat en Figaro circuit en heeft haar zinnen op grotere solo races gezet. De Soloceans Race is een nieuwe race die 23 oktober 2011 start met een nieuwe eenheidsklasse van 16 meter monohulls. De Race heeft een stopover in Wellington (NZ) en Liz Wardley wil in maart weer terug zijn, dus een kleine 100 dagen op zee.....
Liz Wardley heeft met haar schip een Onbekend Drijvend Object geraakt. de schade is zo aanzienlijk dat ze met haar schip op weg is naar het vasteland. Daar zal zij worden bijgestaan door Mer Agitee, het bedrijf van Michel Desjoyeaux, om de schade zo snel mogelijk te herstellen en door te varen.
Good Afternoon,
Message from Liz Wardley this morning onboard the SolOceans One-design to Yvan Griboval (President of SailingOne), while she was at around 150 nautical miles South-West from Finistère (Brittany - France): "It happened at around 0330 UT, I was sailing at 20 Knots with one reef in the main-sail and the staysail and a 25-Knot wind. I fell again from a wave much bigger than the other one and that's when we hit something with the hull bottom at the level of the cockpit behind the engine. I didn't see anything outside; I don't know what it was, maybe a cetacean or something soft floating in the water. I don't have a waterway, the structure of the boat looks intact, but I think the sandwich construction is starting to delaminate at the level of the bulkhead of the cockpit. I'm heading towards Brittany (France) that I should reach at around 1100 UT on 2 December. I hope to restart as soon as possible. Everything is fine on board; I've just had some chocolate cake offered by the triplets on Sunday before the start. It's good for the moral, I feel much better."
As soon as they got the news, the teams of SailingOne and Mer Agitée - Michel Desjoyeaux’s company who is the technical consultant of the SolOceans One-design series, started to get ready at Port La Fôret, Desjoyaux’s family base, for the arrival of Liz. Jean-Marie Vaur - JMV Industries manager (Cherbourg - France) who build the one-design for the SolOceans - and Jean-Marie Finot - the architect of the series - will meet them on Wednesday 2 December at mid-day. Altogether, they will meet Liz Wardley, evaluate the damage and decide on the work that needs to be done in order for Liz Wardley to resume her voyage toward Wellington (NZ) as soon as possible. This pit stop, in “competition mode”, happens while there will be another succession of depressions affecting the tip of Brittany (France). Liz Wardley will then benefit from a shift of the wind to North-West. She will then be able to head south at high speed.
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