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27.04.2010
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27.04.2010 Back to news

The cow takes the bull by the horns!

It's off again for Kito! Less than a day after her collision with a whale, the Groupe Bel Figaro has set off to sea again, this Tuesday. The technical stopover in Santa Cruz (Tenerife) lasted about ten hours and the damaged starboard rudder was replaced without incident. It is not the house style to give up, and even if they are now well behind the leading pack, Kito de Pavant and Sébastien Audigane, have decided to continue their racing adventure! On the word of the racers and a tenacious cow, this team is full of beans. The hunt is on.

Yesterday evening, the first competitors of the Transat AG2R – La Mondiale passed the gate required by the race organizers, located north of La Palma; the island furthest west of the Canaries archipelago. At the same time, the Groupe Bel duo was heading towards Tenerife where they moored at 02:00. Since the collision with this cetacean that happened on Monday at around 13:00 and, which seriously damaged the starboard rudder of the Figaro, the Groupe Bel team has done everything possible to provide the crew with a replacement rudder. The technical manager, Hervé Giorsetti, delivered the item at 10:00 this morning and two hours later, our duo was casting off again.

Disappointed to lose their position in the leading group, which they had defended for over a week, Kito and Seb envisaged everything possible to be able to continue to give this crossing their all. And it is their competitive spirit that won through. For nearly six years, Groupe Bel and her skipper have experienced great joys, however, they have also suffered ordeals and, in the face of adversity, they have remained closely-knit and rolled up their sleeves, and this is yet another demonstration!

The sailors are currently heading for the gate at La Palma, about one hundred miles from Tenerife. A few minutes before leaving the quay of the Santa Cruz marina, Groupe Bel's skipper consulted the weather forecast for the last time and told us that the wind could ease off at the head of the fleet. This is enough to get the nostrils of our cow steaming, as she sees red, not from anger, but from the desire to bite into a few Figaro aft transoms!

Radio contact with Kito de Pavant one hour after they left Tenerife:

"We're tacking to get away from the north east of the island of Tenerife. We still have one hour of tacking ahead and then we will be able to make a direct course for La Palma. So we stopped for roughly 24 hours between our accident with the whale and now and we estimate that we have lost about thirty hours on our arrival in La Palma.

We haven't really thought much during these last 24 hours between the time of handling, organizing the change of rudder and getting Hervé, my technical manager, here on site. It has been incredibly difficult for them, because he had to travel 10 hours by car to Madrid to take the first plane this morning and be there at daybreak.

Of course, we did ask ourselves whether we should continue or not. There are a lot of things to take into account in these circumstances, but insofar as we were able to repair the boat and sail, we decided to take her to the finish of this race, even though the final result will not meet our initial goals. The boat is not at 100% of its capacity, but it is sailing and will not prevent us from getting to St. Barth.

We need encouragement since it will not be simple. Seb and I are not programmed for this kind of situation. To find yourself at the back of the pack is not necessarily very amusing and we are not used to that, but we are going find the energy to take her to all the way."

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