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Vendee Globe: Vincent Rioux retired due to a damaged keel

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On Sunday morning PRB skipper Vincent Riou' s boat in the Vendee Globe round-the-world regatta collided with an unidentified object. Riou initially didn't notice any damage and continued racing, however, three hours later his keel began to vibrate and make loud noises that suggested it was deformed. During the night from Sunday to Monday the intensity of the noises made by the keel increased.

Because of the weather (winds of 25-30 knots and boat speed of 19-20 knots), Riu was not able to immediately inspect the keel but informed his crew of what was happening. It was not until Tuesday morning that the yachtsman was able to check the keel.

He discovered that the axle of the keel had been damaged in the collision.

This titanium piece is an important part of the boat: it's what connects the keel to the plastic ball joint on the hull and allows it to tilt. The collision caused the plastic ball joint to break, resulting in permanent wear between the keel axle and the ball joint attachment. In the long term, there was a threat of the keel tearing off and compromising the integrity of the vessel. In such a situation, Vincent Rioux and his team were forced to make the decision to abandon the race.

This was a difficult decision for Rioux, who was finishing fourth in this round-the-world race.

His PRB was the only boat in the top six not equipped with foils. In terms of speed, it was not inferior to the latest IMOCA 60.

Vincent Rioux has already won the Vendee Globe once before in 2004.

And four years ago, almost to the same day and almost in the same place, he faced an underwater object and damaged his keel in exactly the same way, forcing him to retire.

Vincent Rioux is not the only Vendee Globe 2016 competitor who had to finish the race early. Tanguy de Lamotte was forced to turn back due to a broken mast.

Even the current race leader, Brit Alex Thomson, didn't go smoothly as his IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss also collided with something in the water and lost one of his foils.

Another favourite, second-placed Sébastien Josse, had also suffered a collision with an underwater object. The rudder blade on the starboard side of his Edmond de Rothschild took the brunt of the damage. The system holding the rudder blade was broken, but Josse managed to fix it himself in more than four hours, following instructions from his ground crew's engineers. Nevertheless, the Frenchman lost about 60 miles.

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