British skipper Pip Hare said Monday she was unhurt but upset after being forced out of the Vendee Globe solo non-stop round the world yacht race after dismasting south of Australia.
A visibly emotional Hare said in a video from her boat Medallia that her mast had snapped in heavy seas.
“Medallia just took off, landed and when it landed the mast came down in two pieces,” she said.
“So that’s the end of our 2024 Vendee Globe race. I’m absolutely fine, physically fine and the boat is pretty unscathed as well.
“I don’t think right now I can unpack how I feel, it’s just a case of doing the practical things to look after me and the boat and making some progress towards the shore so we can sort this out.”
Hare, 50, said she had managed to set up a makeshift jury rig and was 700 nautical miles (1,300 kilometres) from Australia.
“She is uninjured but her indefatigable spirit has taken a big hit,” organisers said in a message to AFP.
“(Hare) has secured Medallia and has already set a jury rig and, bitterly disappointed, is making slow but steady progress.
“Medallia is not damaged and Pip is trying to come to terms with things.”
Hare’s is the first dismasting of this 10th edition of the Vendee Globe.
Decked out in her trademark woolly hat, she had posted a video the night before, declaring: “It is so beautiful here.”
She was in 15th position at the time of the damage, around a hundred nautical miles from rival Romain Attanasio in the South Indian Ocean. French skipper Charlie Dalin is leading the race.
“Her hull is not damaged and she is not injured,” Frenchman Attanasio told AFP on Monday.
“I communicated with her by messaging and I told her that I was sad for her, it was great to sail with her.”
Attanasio said they had been sailing in a zone where “there is extremely unstable wind, the sea is stomach-churning and there are a lot of squalls”.
Hare finished the race in 19th place in 2021, sailing for 95 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes and 30 seconds.
The Vendee Globe, which takes place every four years, got underway from Les Sables-d’Olonne in western France in mid-November with the 40 skippers embarking on a 24,300 nautical mile course which takes roughly three months to complete.
