Vendee Globe: Pip Hare dismasts off 800nm off Australia
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com/nz 16 Dec 02:39 UTC
Pip Hare on Medallia - the Vendée Globe Race - December 15 © Pip Hare
On Sunday 15th December at 21:45 UTC, Medallia dismasted, 800 NM south of Australia.
Pip Hare, the skipper, was sailing in 15th position in the Vendée Globe. She is safe and her team is working closely with the Vendée Race management team.
In what must have been a superhuman effort she was able to get the remains of the rig on board, and is now sailing under storm jib alone towards Tasmania.
She has approximately 700nm to sail, and is making about 4kts. If the weather routing pans out she is expected to arrive in 7-10 days. Fortunately she will be sailing at a good angle, and no serious storms are headed her way.
Speaking via an on-board link to race headquarters, five hours after the incident, Hare couldn't shed much light on the reason for the dismasting.
"I don't know what happened. Medallia just took off, landed, and when it landed, the mast came down in two pieces. And so that's the end of our 2024 Vendee Globe race."
"I'm absolutely fine, physically fine, and the boat's pretty unscathed as well.
"I worked for about three hours to clean all the mess up, and I've managed to get a jury rig up, and we now actually need to have just sailing along, doing about four knots. I've got 700 miles from the nearest point of land, so I've got a little bit of time to think about where I'm going."
"I don't think right now I can unpack how how I feel. It's just a case of doing the practical things to look after me in the boat, and making some progress towards the shore so that we can sort this out.
"But I do want to say a massive thank you to everybody who has worked so hard for the last four years to make this race happen to our incredible sponsors for Medallia and Aspen, to all of our partners, our technical partners, our personal partners, everyone who's got a name inside the boat, everyone who helped out, volunteered came to fundraising events because we've all put so much in to making this race happen.
"I'm so sorry that it's ended this way. It's not the end. I hope that by the time I get to the shore, we'll have a really good plan for how to get Medallia sailing again and get back to Europe, and then get back on the race track in 2025."
Mark Jardine's earlier report for Yachts and Yachting|Sail-World.com
Official daily update:
Conrad Colman goes aloft
Pip's onboard report from 24hrs ago:
Pre-Race interview with Pip Hare: