Route du Rhum boats diverted after skipper sends SOS

Several pursuers in the Route du Rhum diverted to assist Benoit Sineau after the skipper activated a distress beacon during Saturday’s race toward the finish in Guadeloupe. Sineau, 55, is competing for the first time in the fourth-tier Class 40 monohull category aboard Ekinox-Rhetores, with most boats having just passed the Azores. Organisers said his presence on board was confirmed but that no communication had been established. A cargo ship (Jules Bonnier’s Class 40) and Robin Marais’s IMOCA were heading toward Ekinox-Rhetores, expected to arrive around 2000 GMT.