Transat Jacques Vabre - Lionel Lemoinchois explains what happened

by Sail-World.com on 29 Oct 2015 Co-Skipper of the 80ft trimaran Prince de Bretagne, Lionel Lemoinchois explains what happened in their capsize and rescue early on the second day of the Transat Jacques Vabre

Lionel, can you go tell us about the capsize, what happened?
'I did not see much because I was in the boat. We were upwind with the staysail, in a sea, with between 15 and 17 knots of wind. Ten minutes before I had discussed with Bilou whether to place the solent or not. I do not know what happened, I just had time to jump out and catch Bilou to catch him as he fell. Was it a wave, or gust or both, it's hard to say ... It's hard because we’d been through most of the bad weather and the weather was really OK

How did you feel at that time?
'It is the sky falling on your head. I went through this two years ago. Reliving the same thing twice, it comes rushing back. I have not thought about the Transat itself but the boat, all this amount of work and energy we spent on that Maxi80 Prince de Bretagne to get here. It is terrible to see all those efforts go up into the air in the space of two seconds and then you think of the consequences from here on.

At first, you did not ask for assistance then finally, you have triggered your distress beacon. What motivated this decision?
'Last night when I called Mino (Dominique Vittet, technical director of the team, ed), he said the winds becoming stronger, saying that it could go up to 40 knots on Thursday evening. This afternoon, there were already five to six meter waves and it was blowing at 30 knots. I still made sure to drop the rig to relieve the boat. I succeeded after two hours spent in the water before being recovered by the coastguards and leave the boat. '

How was the winching operation?
'The helicopter from MRCC Madrid arrived super fast. He even surprised us because we did not expect so quickly. It arrived above us and then a guy who lifted us off, one after the other, Bilou first and then me. In total, it lasted twenty minutes. It was very impressive to see it after its cable swung around above the boat swung in all directions, but soon we could see they do this kind of thing all the time because it was very slick and very professional. '

Your priority is to try to recover Maxi80 Prince de Bretagne?
“We will try to do whatever it takes. We started discussing to find a tug. The idea it is to attempt to tow the trimaran upside to La Coruna or other close enough port, then return it to right it. To my mind, this is what will be the least destructive for the boat. Our technical team is responsible for this and if possible, we will leave Thursday night after the gale to be on zone Friday. '