French trimaran IDEC SPORT Hits 'UFO' 130 Miles off the Irish Coast

8th January 2016

The massive French trimaran IDEC SPORT has hit an unidentified floating object during the night, 130 miles off the southwest coast of Ireland. The port rudder is broken. However they are still expected to reach the pontoon in Brest at 1900hrs UTC after its failed Jules Verne Trophy attempt.

At around 0300hrs this morning, just over 130 miles SW of Ireland in heavy seas, the crew on IDEC SPORT heard two big bangs, indicating that they had hit an unidentified floating object (a container, plank of wood, or something else?).

Once they had got over the scare, Francis Joyon’s crew saw that the port rudder was broken. On the starboard tack, only the central rudder can be used to steer the boat. Six hours after suffering this damage, IDEC SPORT was still making 30 knots towards the finish, which at 0900hrs this morning was 230 miles away. So for the time being the men are still expected to finish in Brest at around 1900hrs this evening.

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