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Keel cylinder of Vendée Globe yacht cracked

The keel cylinder of the "SMA" , the Imoca of Paul Meilhat, has cracked on 40 centimeters length on Dec 20, 2016. Meilhat decided to fix the system to try to put the keel in the axis. A suspicious noise had alerted the skipper. When inspecting his keel shaft, he found that the oil of the hydraulic circuit had flooded the cylinder compartment. He first suspected the rupture of a pipe of the hydraulic circuit, before finding a crack on the cylinder itself. He quickly understood that the keel had shifted to leeward. Oil from the hydraulic circuit had been leaking under the ram. In the afternoon, with the wind astern, the skipper managed to get the keel fixed in the middle using the security system. The whole of the hydraulic system was now out of use and if not fixed in position, the keel would swing from one side to the other. Paul Meilhat was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 2,000 miles east of New Zealand. He headed slowly north to deal with the keel ram issue and was making 8,5 knots in a northerly direction.