Las buenas noticias corresponden a la recuperación del francés luego de su rescate en altamar, pero la señal que emitía la posición del Generali se detuvo en el día de ayer, lo que se considera al barco como perdido. El equipo de rescate estaba listo para salir el día 25 pero las condiciones de mar y viento eran muy malas y lo impidieron. Con esta nueva noticia se suspende definitivamente el intento de rescate.
JPC
Fuente info VG
Day 49 ½ Mid Pacific Ocean
Generali Lost at Sea
0400 HRS GMT. Rankings, (FRA, unless stated)
1. Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) at + 1009.4 miles
2. Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) at + 88.1 miles
3. Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) at + 280.6 miles
4. Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) at 494.4 miles
5. Vincent Riou (PRB) at + 500.2 miles
Selected International
8. Sam Davies, GBR, (ROXY) at + 1504.9 miles
10. Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 2181.7 miles
11. Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 2222.9 miles
13. Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at + 2867.5 miles
14. Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 3641.7 miles
15. Rich Wilson, USA, (Great American III) at + 3728.2 miles
16. Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) at + 4010.8 miles
17. Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport.Kapsch) + 4659.8 miles
IN SHORT WORDS
Positive news for injured Yann Eliès whose recovery is such that he will return to France on 31st January, but position reports for his IMOCA Open 60 ceased on December 26th and Generali is now considered lost at sea.
Meantime Seb Josse still continues northwards on BT, making progress towards the lighter winds of a high pressure system, and Derek Hatfield – whose Algimouss Spirit of Canada sustained broken spreaders early yesterday – makes steady progress north east towards Tasmania.
Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) leads at 88.1 miles ahead of Roland Jourdain, while Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy) is top international skipper in eighth place.
. While Yann Eliès' health has now improved sufficiently to allow him to be flown home this Wednesday 31st December, the Generali IMOCA Open 60 is considered lost at sea some 700 miles south of Australia.
As the medical teams were busy taking care of Yann following his accident, Generali launched an operation to recover the boat. Two members of Team Generali arrived in Fremantle, Australia and identified a suitable boat to take them to where the Open 60 was abandoned.
On 23rd December, the Race Directors realized that the positioning beacon on the Generali was no longer transmitting. They were informed by the French Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (CROSS Gris Nez) that the COSPAS SARSAT distress beacon had been triggered. The Generali team was immediately informed.
Philippe Laot, the technical director of Yann Eliès' team and Jean-Baptiste Epron, a Generali crew member were able to set off in a fishing boat on Wednesday 25th December, but soon encountered very bad wind and sea conditions.
While they were on passage to the expected location on Friday 26th December, they were told by the Generali shore team that the distress beacon had stopped transmitting. It was therefore no longer possible to identify the boat's position. The weather conditions worsened (7-8m high waves and crossed seas) and the team was forced to call off the search.
Since being capsized on Boxing Day Seb Josse has made nearly 500 miles north towards better weather conditions to try to make repairs to the rudder of his BT and see what can be done with the cracking on the deck of the British Open 60. Derek Hatfield has made no official decision about retiring from the Vendée Globe and is making steady progress towards Australia preserving his rig which lost the support of two top spreaders after being knocked over late on Saturday night. Canadian Hatfield has had many, many messages of support sent to a skipper whose battle to get to the start line was never, ever easy. He painstakingly built the Owen Clarke design in-house and raised enough funding to start this race by finding more than 10,000 individuals and supporters to contribute. Even in Les Sables d’Olonne at the start his team were still seeking and receiving donations.
Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy) still holds a strong eighth place. From being 606 miles behind seventh placed Jean Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac) she is now 263 miles behind this morning.
At the front of the fleet only Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) has managed to stay within 100 miles of leader Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia). Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) is third at 280.6 miles behind, while the Le Cléach and Riou duo are now the best part of 500 miles behind the leader in fourth and fifth. Again last night the pair passed with less than three miles between them.
