One of the ongoing races in sailing is the Vendee Globe that is a solo race for skippers across the world.
The current status of the sailing competition is that one of the sailors has got into trouble as his boat collided with a shipping container. This occurred off the coast of New Zealand. There are images on many blogs and forums where the damage done to the boat is visible. Thomas Ruyant is a French sailor who is participating in the around the world race of the Vendee Globe. His boat has run into serious damage as it collided with a shipping container. This occurred off the coast of New Zealand, about several hundred miles in the south direction. The incident took place on Sunday.
The race organizers stated that the skipper was part of the Le Souffle du Nord team. He is okay, but his boat is on the verge of splitting up. Ruyant managed to spend Sunday night in the damaged condition and he is motoring towards Bluff, which is a South Island off the coast of New Zealand.
This takes him about 260 miles away from the original course of the race. Ruyant reported to his team that he had been traveling at 17 knots when he was hit by a shipping container that was probably floating in the waters. He states that the collision felt similar to a car accident. As the boat got into shock and came to a halt, he was disappointed with what this spelt for his position in the race. Anyway, he realizes that his priority is to get the boat to port in a safe manner. There have been similar incidents with others in the early part of the race as well this year. Indeed, collisions seem to be fated for many skippers this year.