© Benjamin Sellier all right reserved

Around 1 p.m. (French time) on Wednesday, December 4, Louis Burton informed the Vendée Globe race management and his technical team that he was facing a serious failure of a mechanical rigging component on his IMOCA.

For 10 hours, the skipper of Bureau Vallée searched in vain for a solution to repair the damage. After carefully analyzing the situation and despite his characteristic determination, Louis has had to resign himself this evening to abandoning the race. He is now heading toward Cape Town, South Africa, which he is expected to reach in approximately 36 hours.

While sailing ahead of a depression in brisk but manageable conditions, Louis Burton experienced a sudden failure of a mechanical rigging component this Wednesday midday, leaving him unable to maneuver the boat. The skipper of Bureau Vallée took the time to assess the damage, try every possible repair, and reflect deeply before making the decision to withdraw. This second major failure, coming just two weeks after he repaired cracks in his boat alone at sea, has significantly compromised the integrity of the boat—and by extension, its skipper—at a time when the Southern Ocean's weather conditions are becoming extremely demanding.

This decision was difficult to make, but as an experienced sailor—with two circumnavigations under his belt, including a third-place finish in the previous Vendée Globe, 15 years of progression in the IMOCA circuit, and 15 transatlantic races to his name—Louis Burton is bowing out of the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe.