Hugo Boss Yacht and Alex Thomson - Shaken but not Stirred

Les Sables d’Olonne, France - As YachtPals.com reported previously, the Hugo Boss yacht sailed by Vendée Globe skipper Alex Thomson was hit by a fishing boat last Friday, holing the yacht, breaking the mast, and causing other major damage to the Open 60 sailboat. Since then, Alex and the entire Hugo Boss team have been working feverishly to assess the damage, and see if they can bring the boat back to sailing condition for the Vendée Globe start on November 9th, or if they are out of the race. The good news arrived today - Alex Thomson and his team have begun repairs to the boat, and have confidence that the UK skipper will be at the Vendée Globe start line.  They will only have a very short amount of time to test this confidence, as it will be an enormous challenge to get this world-class yacht fixed and in condition suitable for a solo around the world yacht race in such a few days. However, with a huge team, great friends, the right spirit, and enough sponsorship dollars, just about anything is possible.

“As of now we have taken the decision to repair the boat and will try our hardest to be ready for the start on 9th November. This is a massive task. To start with we have a broken mast, broken five metres above the deck and the only solution is to repair it by sticking an insert into the mast and replace the broken section. We expect the difference in weight to be negligible. And it will be stronger,” said Thomson.

Strength is certainly on the mind of Alex in the wake of this accident. The Hugo Boss team reported that the yacht was hit by the fishing boat just forward of the mast bulkhead (a decidedly structural bulkhead), which took the majority of the crash impact. According to the team, if the boat had been hit just two meters forward or aft of this spot, the yacht would have been cut in half, causing a serious safety threat to the Hugo Boss crew.

The Hugo Boss IMOCA Open 60 was moved into the Alliaura Marine boat yard this afternoon, where Thomson expects between 25 and 30 people to work around the clock to complete the repairs. The Hugo Boss technical team, Sir Keith Mills (Chairman of Alex Thomson Racing), Mike Sanderson and David Duff from Team ORIGIN, and other boat builders and mast builders are currently being assembled at the yard. The hull repair needed for the yacht will now be made using a mold from Generali, a near sister-ship to the Hugo Boss yacht. In the spirit of camaraderie, fellow Vendée Globe skipper Yann Eliès and his team kindly offered the Generali mold to help get his competitor back in the race.

Alex detailed the extent of the project: “For the hull we have to cut out the damaged section which is approximately five metres by two metres and we will make a new section from the mould of Generali. Without the support of Yann Eliès this would not be possible. Then the new piece will be fitted. We will need a team to repair the boat. Multiplast will make the new section, we need a team from Southern Spars to make the mast good, we need riggers, we need an electronics team, and of course we have to prepare the boat for the race we are going to do in less than three weeks. [...] They say in these kind of events that half the race is getting to the start line. In this case it looks like it is going to be more than 75% of it but everyone who has been here and inspected the boat and the rig has said it can be done. I don’t know an awful lot about the very technical side of these things but I’m more than happy to go along with them. I have always believed that this was achievable until I was told otherwise.”

Though a difficult task, Alex is obviously optimistic that he will still make it to the Vendée Globe start on the 9th: “We plan to be ready for the start of the race, and for sure at the moment the plan says that we will be ready, and we must make sure that we have people and expertise in place to combat any problems. Obviously this is a big repair and of paramount importance is making sure it is strong enough to go around the world. The goal before was to race in the Vendée Globe and now the race is to get to the start of the Vendée Globe.”

- K. Hampton exclusively for YachtPals.com

Read more about Hugo Boss or the Vendee Globe:

• Hugo Boss Collision (original article about Hugo Boss collision)
  
• Vendee Globe (all news, blogs, photos and videos about the Vendee Globe)
• Vendee Globe Skipper in the Spotlight Interview - Steve White
• Vendee Globe Skipper in the Spotlight Interview - Dee Caffari
• Vendee Globe Skipper in the Spotlight Interview - Loïck Peyron
• Vendee Globe Skipper in the Spotlight Interview - Sam Davies
• Vendée Globe Skipper in the Spotlight Interview - Mike Golding