Tony Bullimore's catamaran capsized off Spain

by Barry Pickthall,PPL/Sail-World Cruising on 29 Oct 2010 This time at least his boat was not in the Southern Ocean.

Tony Bullimore's 33m catamaran has capsized off Cape Finisterre in the Bay of Biscay and seven British based crew members have been rescued by French Air Sea Rescue services.

The seven sailors were successfully airlifted off the 33m racing catamaran Spirit of Antigua late on Wednesday local time after capsizing in the Bay of Biscay, 135 miles south west of Brest.

The famous catamaran, which set a round the world record back in 1994 when named 'ENZA New Zealand' is owned by Tony Bullimore, who himself was rescued back in 1996 after surviving for 5 days in his upturned yacht in the Southern Ocean.

Bullimore was not onboard this time. The crew, skippered by Ben Jones from Bristol, were delivering the multihull from Lisbon to Bristol, via La Corunna, northern Spain.

An automated distress signal was first picked up by Falmouth Coastguard at 7.30pm who alerted the French rescue authorities. The destroyer HMS Ocean, on manoeuvres in the area, was also called to investigate.

A French Air Sea rescue helicopter reached the scene at midnight and successfully winched all seven crewmembers to safety from the upturned hull. They were then flown to the Naval Air Station at Lanveoc near Brest. The crew are expected to return to the UK overnight on the Roscoff/Plymouth ferry.

Tony Bullimore (71) had been planning to attempt to break the Round Antarctica sailboat record, and was having the boat returned to his home port of Bristol to prepare her for the challenge.

Conditions at the time were reported to be slight slight seas, good visibility, and winds 11knots/h. In an interview with the French press today, skipper Ben Jones said that they were hit by a sudden gust of wind. 'The catamaran accelerated from 15 to 30knots and we were not able to slow her down.'

Bullimore suffered a similar calamity in the 1980s when competing in the Route du Rhum Race from St Malo to Guadeloupe. Then, his 60ft trimaran 'Apricot' was in collision with an unknown object during the first night at sea and lost one of its floats.

The British yachtsman managed to sail back towards Brest, but a mix up in communication with a tug over the rendezvous point led to the multihull being smashed to pieces against the rocks.

His next boat, 'Spirit of Apricot' also capsized during sailing trials in the Bristol Channel and one crewman died in the incident.

In 2007, Bullimore began a solo round the world record attempt in the Spirit of Antigua (at that time called Doha II), but gave up after experiencing rigging failure, within a week of setting out from Tasmania.

A French Coastguard plane was sent out today to plot the position of the £500,000 catamaran and assess whether it was a danger to shipping or could be salvaged.