Multiple capsizes in Transat Jacques-Vabre

by Event Media on 9 Nov 2005 Three multihulls have capsized in the Transat Jacques-Vabre trans-Atlantic Race from France to Brazil.

The incidents of the last 24 hours, together with the latest update, and quotes from the skippers follow - covering all three fleets. The skipper of Foncia and Orange Project are safely off boats and en route to Brest

There are six 60ft multihulls still racing in the ORMA class, and all 12 of the Open 60 Monohulls in the IMOCA fleet. Likewise all six 50ft multihulls and now six out of the seven monohulls in Class 2 are racing, albeit various teams are undergoing pitstops or have suffered damage. Open 50 Monohull Adecco-Etoile Horizon has suffered structural damage and has abandoned their race.

IMOCA 60 Class Update & N 50 Class 2 Update:

The Open 60 monohulls were further south than the trimarans this morning, but they also experienced the brunt end of the cold front, but with less violent seas. They are all now back on starboard tack heading south passing Cape Finisterre in a 25 – 30 knot north westerly breeze, and the seas have therefore become more manageable. The first boat to get over to the West nearer to the direct route, Virbac-Paprec (Dick/Peyron) has therefore taken over the lead from Jourdain and MacArthur on Sill et Veolia, even though the Anglo-French duo are the furthest boat south in the fleet. Golding and Wavre on Ecover hold 3rd position now as they are positioned to the east of the leading two boats. Only 14 miles separates the top three in terms of distance to finish, and their boat speeds are right back up to surfing rate, averaging 16+ knots, but clocking up to 23-25 knots on the plane.

Thompson and Oxley on Skandia having been clocking some of the fastest instantaneous boat speeds in the whole fleet, and are working and surfing hard to make inroads into the top 3 now from 4th position. Bonduelle (Le Cam / de Pavant) chose to dive South earlier on, and is even further to the East than Ecover, although on the same latitude, and now in 5th.

Brazilian team onboard Galileo were the only Open 60 to suffer serious damage with a broken boom in the heavy conditions generated by the cold front. Walter Antunes and Raphael Coldefy are derouting to a Spanish port and still deciding whether they can continue in the race.

Amongst the Open 50 monohulls, Artforms reached Lorient after their mainsail ripped, in order to pick up their old mainsail. Skippers Kip Stone and Merf Owen are deliberating as to whether to continue racing. Therefore Hall and Harris on Gryphon Solo now have a 51m lead on Vedettes de Bréhat as the boats still head west to escape the low pressure system. Adecco-Etoile Horizon is also in Lorient making a pit-stop.

Multihull Update: ORMA 60 and Class 2 50ft

Around 2100hrs local time on Tuesday, the trimaran Brossard with a 3cm wide crack down the central hull, was finally taken under tow behind a motor boat equipped by Laurent Bourgnon, brother of skipper Yvan, who recounts their tale. ‘He arrived right on time because we had to position the boat into the sea and we couldn’t manoeuvre her by ourselves. There are only a few centimeters which now hold the central hull by the beam, with a serious amount of water coming through the rupture. So we just had to keep pumping it out. The whole boat was at risk as if the central hull had split in two, it would fold in on itself and the mast would have fallen down. Happily, Guernsey was on our path. After that it would have been England, because we couldn’t get to the nearest island of Contentin. So it was a real blessing that the team and my brother Laurent turned up when they did, to be able to take the tow… It’s better to have this kind of accident nearer the coast at the beginning of the race rather than in mid-Atlantic, even if today we are still puzzled as to why this happened because the boat hasn’t had any problems for two and a half years. We had thoroughly checked out the boat at the start of the season precisely to be certain that the structure was totally sound. It’s even more of a surprise as Brossard’s sistership, Banque Populaire, has the same structure and yet hasn’t suffered any damage at all.’

At 0315 GMT Tuesday morning, the CROSS and MRCC Falmouth Maritime Rescue Services were informed that the trimarans Sodebo and Orange Project had set off their EPIRB distress beacons. Skippers Thomas Coville & Vincent (Sodebo) contacted the Race HQ in Paris for the Transat Jacques Vabre to inform them that the port hull of their 60ft trimaran had broken, which lead to the boat dismasting. The boat was positioned 150 miles to the West of the French port of Brest in 35 – 45 knots of wind and a very rough sea state. These two skippers were both safe and sound, but could no longer control the boat.

Thomas Coville later recounted their incident on Sodebo: ‘The seas were immense. We were around the edge of the continental shelf when the wind rose to its highest point. A huge wave suddenly slammed violently into the boat and the port float split in two right - in the middle. We took furled the mainsail immediately and fought to get the boat facing downwind, to be less exposed. But the mast fell down, breaking the beam and smashing on the leeward float. The fishing boat which is towing us right now was actually really close, on stand-by. So when this happened they came alongside very quickly.’

A few minutes later, it was the Swiss team of Stève and Yvan Ravussin, until now dominating the fleet of ORMA 60 multihulls, who contacted the Race HQ as well to inform them that the beam between the hulls had broken, which also lead to the Orange Project capsizing. The Swiss brothers are unscathed from the ordeal, and the boat was lying 220 miles from Brest.

At 0715hrs local time, Alain Gautier contacted the Race HQ for the Transat Jacques Vabre: the Project Manager for Foncia informed the organisation that the trimaran had capsized whilst in 2nd place in the ORMA multihull fleet rankings, quite near to the leader Groupama-2. It was during the passage of the second, worse cold front that the accident happened. Foncia was progressing upwind at an average speed (about 10 knots) heading West in a 35 – 45 knot SWesterly breeze, waiting for the wind shift to the North West.

Armel Le Cléac’h liaised with the Race Doctor, Jean-Yves Chauve, because his co-skipper, Irishman Damian Foxall, had injured his shoulder and it seems that his collarbone is broken. The rescue operation was then handed over to the French Navy &stguard to locate and pick up the four skippers on Foncia and then Orange Project as the two boats were only 6 miles apart: a helicopter from the French Coastguard flew out from Brest to refuel on the Jeanne d’Arc, an aircraft carrier ship operational in the zone, at precisely 1030 GMT today, as the two trimarans were located outside their fly-zone 220m from the coast.

Rendez-vous was made with Foncia at 1230 GMT. The diver onboard the helicopter evacuated Damian Foxall first using a special stretcher lowered on a winch and then picked up Armel Le Cleac’h. Next the helicopter flew directly to Orange Project and winched off the two Swiss skippers Steve and Yvan Ravussin. At 1400 GMT all four skippers were onboard the helicopter and on an hour’s flight to the Jeanne d'Arc first to receive medical assistance. The skippers are expected then to be flown to Brest later on. It is still too rough for any tow to be effected on either trimaran at this moment.

Also, in the Multihull Open 50 class, Victorinox and Branec have suffered damage and are heading back towards the coast. Victorinox, skippered by Dany Monnier and Pierre Dupuy, had broken their bowsprit, and have arrived this afternoon in Roscoff. They have decided to repair and race to Bahia. Branec’s port float has broken up. Branec’s crew, skippers Roger Langevin and Henriette Lemay, are heading slowly for the French coast.

Quotes from the skippers racing at sea:

Multihulls

Franck Cammas