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L'équipage dont le bateau est abîmé a navigué malgré les vagues.

L'équipage dont le bateau est abîmé a navigué malgré les vagues.
The crew whose boat is damaged sailed despite the waves.
From Lesson 204:Concession preposition (malgré)·French

Questions & Answers about L'équipage dont le bateau est abîmé a navigué malgré les vagues.

How do we use malgré in this sentence, and do we ever say malgré de?
Malgré means "despite" or "in spite of" and is always followed directly by a noun or noun phrase. You just say malgré les vagues (despite the waves). A very common mistake is to add de because English speakers think of "in spite of", but you should never say malgré de.
Why do we use dont here instead of qui or que?
Dont is the French relative pronoun used to indicate possession, translating to "whose" in this context. It replaces a phrase that would normally start with de. Since you would say "le bateau de l'équipage" (the boat of the crew), you use dont to connect them into l'équipage dont le bateau (the crew whose boat).
Could I use cassé instead of abîmé to say the boat is damaged?
You could, but abîmé sounds much more natural here. Cassé generally means completely "broken" or physically snapped in pieces. Abîmé means "damaged", "ruined", or "battered", which perfectly describes a boat that has taken a beating from the waves but is still able to sail.
Does the past participle navigué need to agree with l'équipage?
No, it doesn't. The passé composé here is formed with the auxiliary verb avoir (a navigué). When using avoir, the past participle never agrees with the subject.

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