This from Gutek:

“Having no autopilot means I can’t race, and if I can’t race, I have to retire. When I joined the Vendée Globe I was not interested in being the 15thth skipper to finish. That’s a tough decision, one of toughest in my life. But that’s Vendee Globe, that’s the power of the ocean and you can’t fight it.
“I cannot go without an autopilot in the Southern Ocean, that is impossible. I need to keep the boat in one piece I don’t want to lose it and maybe my life in the Southern Ocean.”

”It’s like driving at night on a road you don’t know, a road with many turns, surrounded with trees. Suddenly your lights go off and you can’t slow down. How many chances do you have to survive? That’s what is happening with my autopilot, if you replace the road and the trees with the ocean and the waves.”