Groupama 3 Abandons Record Attempt

Structural failure ended the ’round the world record attempt of Franck Cammas’ Groupama 3 this morning at about 4 a.m. PST. Sailing at 90° true in a north-northeasterly breeze of up to 35 knots, Thomas Coville and Bruno Jeanjean were on deck and averaging 25 knots of boatspeed when "a bulkhead attached to the aft beam simply gave up the ghost," according to a statement released by the team.

"There was a small fissure between the aft beam and the port float," Cammas said. "Conditions were really bouncy — we came to a standstill with the wind right on our tail so as to be able to open the hatch and get down inside the float. Part of the section between the beam and the float, level with the bulkhead, had become detached . . . We’re going to draw up a route to avoid having too much wind and excessive waves. We’re heading south to let the second low pass by us tonight and then we’ll head off towards Cape Town tomorrow morning. We’re continuing with the same watch system and I’m working with Stan to see what we can do next."

The "Stan" Cammas is referring to is of course the Bay Area’s Stan Honey, who had navigated the 105-ft trimaran to a 345-mile lead over the reference time of the current record when the damage occurred. We’d hoped to see Honey and Groupama 3 demolish the record this year; according to the skipper, that may still happen.

"The idea then is to get back to France as quickly as possible," Cammas said. "The crew’s up for that, and if we can set off again before the end of January, then it’s still feasible to make a new attempt!"