GUYOT environnement - Team Europe has announced its intention to continue in The Ocean Race 2022-23 as it fights for a comeback in Leg 6 out of Aarhus next week.
The boat is currently in the Kiel shipyard Knierim, where the tech team and 10 international boatbuilding experts are working day and night on the hull, mast, foils and rudder following its dismasting in a fierce North Atlantic storm nearly a month ago.
Logistical issues — not limited to the practicalities of shipping the stricken IMOCA from Nova Scotia to northern Europe — have been solved with assistance from GAC Pindar, and the financial gap has been bridged “thanks to the common support and solidarity of many race stakeholders”, the team says.
“This comeback is only possible because of a great collaboration between The Ocean Race family, all of whom worked incredibly hard on the different levels to help us get back in the race,” said team manager Jens Kuphal.
“It was not only a question of whether the repair was technically possible at all in the tight timeframe, but also of setting up the financing for it. We got support from all sides. The Ocean Race was committed to us and all the other teams helped.
“Special thanks go to Biotherm who showed unmatched solidarity and sporting spirit in providing what we needed most. And 11th Hour Racing Team pulled out all the stops to help us acquire their spare mast on very favourable terms. Team Holcim-PRB too, contributed to help get us here.
“But the truth is all of our friends on teams that we normally compete against pulled together to see us have this opportunity to be back on the start line in Aarhus. And none of this would have been possible without the leadership and contributions of The Ocean Race organisation.
“During the last two weeks our team has grown together even more. After the abandonment of the Southern Ocean leg, the dismasting was the second knockdown. But we got up again… We want to make the impossible possible once again and get the boat to the starting line in Aarhus.”
Skipper Benjamin Dutreux said: “The decisions weren’t easy to make. Over the last 15 days, we’ve been in a lot of discussions with a large number of players to see how feasible it would be to rejoin the race from a financial point of view, because it’s a costly logistical challenge, there’s been a lot of damage on board, so it wasn’t just a technical challenge, we had to find a lot of support to be able to bounce back.
“Of course, we had to consider the fact that we’ll be taking part in the Transat Jacques Vabre in October. Inevitably the question of stopping the race came up. This option has always been the last option. It’s been like a sword of Damocles hanging over my head since the dismasting, but deep down I was convinced that we were going to find the necessary solutions to get back into the race.”
GUYOT environnement - Team Europe test out of the shade as they race to ready to the boat for Leg 6 next week | Credit: Gauthier Lebec/GUYOT environnement - Team Europe/The Ocean Race
Dutreux addd: “We’ve set up our base camp there at the Knierim Boatyard. The German part of the campaign has local contacts and was able to organise support manpower to be able to repair the boat in five days.”
Gunnar Knierim and Steffen Müller, bosses of the Kiel Knierim shipyard, explain: “We’re up for such a fire brigade mission. That’s what our job is all about. Economic thinking only takes second place here. When the yacht arrived here, we went to work with all enthusiasm. It is super to be involved in this project. Finally, there is a real racing boat in the hall again.”
Thomas Cardrin, head of the tech team, summarises all the technical challenges: When the mast broke, the hull as well as foils and rudders also sustained damage. Eight boatbuilders are currently working day and night on two bulkheads. The keel suspension has to be repaired, which ties up two more boatbuilders for three days. The mast blank from 11th Hour Racing Team now needs to be fitted with the wiring and technical equipment (e.g. radar and Oscar) and adapted to the boat. The replacement mainsail needs new battens.
The work has already progressed considerably in the past few days, so that it is planned to push the yacht out of the shipyard hall on Monday (5 June) and to hang up the keel and foils. On Monday evening it will be put into the water in the Kiel Canal, so that on Tuesday the mast can be set and the sails hoisted.
Benjamin Dutreux summarises: “But here we are, the pieces of the puzzle have been put together and we’ve given the ‘Go’. We’re going to have to fight even harder over the next few days to pull off this commando mission and make it to the start in Aarhus, but we’re more determined than ever!”
