Open 60 sailboat hits whale in artemis transat. WHALE DAMAGE

[sailingaway]

Michel Desjoyeaux single-handing on Foncia in the artemis transat just hit a whale! Dammaged his daggerboard (photo here: Artemis Transat Breaking News - Foncia Hits Whale! | YachtPals.com).

Anyone else ever hit a whale? Did it damage your boat?

[jzk]

I wonder if he really hit a whale. It sounds like he doesn't know what he hit, and the daggerboard is remarkably undamaged for having hit a whale.

[sailingaway]

Good question. I gues its his word against the whales

Overall, there were supposedly 2 whales and 1 shark hit in the Artemis Transat!

Interview with Loick Peyron (winner of this years Transat) where he talks about the U.F.O.'s (unidentified floating objects), and the whales.

At least he didn't hit any.

[redbreast]

I can quite believe the story as we came within 5 feet of hitting a Pilot Whale off the coast of Scotland when we circumnaviagted England in a Hobie 16, they are big beasts, beautiful but big.

[Weyalan]

Originally Posted by redbreast

I can quite believe the story as we came within 5 feet of hitting a Pilot Whale off the coast of Scotland when we circumnaviagted England in a Hobie 16, they are big beasts, beautiful but big.

Circumnavigating England... now that I'd like to see . I'm gonna go out on a limb and take a punt that you circumnavigated the British Isles? Us folk from Scotland & Wales get fed up of being referred to as "England"... Im gessing people from the USA would feel the same if they were constantly called either Mexicans or Canadians.

[Aussiesuede]

When you hit then they have a tendency to dive and their tail flipper usually does the damage. That sounds/looks like what happened here. He hit the beast with his nose and likely got a whack from the tail fin in the daggerboard....

Here is some minor hull damage from a whales tail fin:


And Prop Damage from the same incident: