Acteurs-Locaux Vendée - Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée) contraint d’abandonner le Vendée Globe 2024

Alors qu’il naviguait en avant d’une dépression, dans des conditions toniques mais maniables, Louis Burton a rencontré ce mercredi midi une brusque avarie d'un élément mécanique du gréement qui ne lui permet plus de manœuvrer le bateau. Le skipper de Bureau Vallée a pris le temps de constater les dégâts, de tout essayer pour réparer et de réfléchir longuement avant de prendre la décision d’abandonner. Cette deuxième avarie conséquente, après avoir réparé les fissures de son bateau seul en mer il y a quinze jours, atteint considérablement l’intégrité du bateau et par la même de son skipper, à l’heure où les conditions météo du Grand Sud deviennent extrêmement sollicitantes.

Cette décision a été difficile à prendre mais c’est en bon marin, avec une expérience acquise sur deux tours du monde bouclés, dont une troisième place sur le précédent Vendée Globe, quinze années de course au large sur le circuit IMOCA à son actif, que Louis Burton quitte la 10e édition du Vendée Globe.

At around midday UTC yesterday, Wednesday 4th December, Louis Burton informed the Vendée Globe race management and his technical team that he had encountered serious damage to a mechanical element of the rigging of his IMOCA. For 10 hours after that the skipper of Bureau Vallée searched for a solution to repair it. But his efforts have proven to be in vain. After a careful analysis of the situation, even with the determination that characterises the skipper who finished third on the 2020-21 race, Burton has had to abandon the race. He is heading towards Cape Town, which he should reach in around 36 hours.

While sailing ahead of a depression, in brisk but manageable conditions, Burton suffered a sudden damage to a mechanical element of the rigging. This means he can no longer manoeuvre his boat. The skipper of Bureau Vallée took the time to assess the damage, to try everything to repair it and to think long and hard before deciding to abandon. After having repaired serious cracks in his boat alone at sea a fortnight ago this second major damage has substantially affected the integrity of his boat at a time when the weather conditions in the Southern Ocean are extremely demanding.

This decision was difficult to make but it is as a sailor who has two round the world races under his belt including that third place in the last Vendée Globe and fifteen years of experience on the IMOCA circuit and fifteen transatlantic races to his credit that Burton leaves the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe.

Michel Lecomte