While in 3rd place in the fleet on this 3rd day of the race, Nicolas Lunven informed his shore team that the bowsprit of his IMOCA Holcim-PRB had broken. Already a victim of a bowsprit failure during the outbound race to the United States, The Transat CIC, the solo sailor knows that he will not be able to fully exploit the potential of his IMOCA on the way to Les Sables d’Olonne, but he remains in the race. After a remarkable start to the race, the skipper is once again deprived of his downwind sails for the remainder of this race.

The break occurred around 11 a.m. (French time) this morning. Nicolas had spent the night under J2 and J3 and was preparing to change sails. The bowsprit broke just as the skipper had barely unfurled one of his downwind sails, which has an area of 220 m². He struggled for over an hour, and after an intense effort, he managed to recover both the sail and the bowsprit. For now, he does not know the reason for this breakage.

First reactions from Nicolas Lunven:

"I don’t know why it broke. During the outbound transatlantic race, we immediately knew what had happened. A block had come loose and hit the bowsprit tube, seriously damaging it. This bowsprit was repaired in New York. During the first three days of the race, we mainly sailed downwind or in light winds, so a lot under the storm jib. Last night, I put it away. This night, we were sailing tighter, it was J2 or J3, so not on the bowsprit. This morning, I wanted to set another sail on the bowsprit, a big sail. After preparing everything, I unfurled it. I barely trimmed it, and it broke immediately. I have no idea what it could be... I hadn't noticed anything particular before.

I managed to recover the sail in one piece, as well as the bowsprit that was dangling at the front. Shortly after the failure, a cloud came in and the wind picked up to 18 knots... I had to recover the sail in those conditions. I’m soaked and the boat is a mess, but at least I managed to get everything back on board.

Sometimes humans are capable of extraordinary resources! The plan was to unfurl the sail and go sleep, as I hadn’t managed to get much rest since the start of the race and I was already exhausted. Now, I’m going to dry off, change, and rest."