Capsize, capsize, capsize!

On Saturday, October 25, the Ocean Fifty boats left Le Havre, ahead of their fellow competitors, to avoid the worst of the bad weather. Under a beautiful sun, the crowds cheered them on for their epic journey along the Coffee Route. As night fell, the weather deteriorated in the Channel, with winds gusting up to 40 knots. Off the coast of La Hague, the multihulls struggled to make headway. In a matter of hours, everything changed: six sailors went through hell. Three successive capsizes that shake the fleet.

LAZARE x HELLIO, "in a few seconds, the water was up to our chins"

10:27 PM. Aboard Lazare x Hellio, Erwan Le Draoulec and Tanguy Le Turquais are in their racing positions. Vigilant, sheets in hand, eyes fixed on the water, when suddenly "the boat nosedived very sharply," Tanguy recalls. "We eased all the sheets, we expected the boat to right itself, but that wasn't the case." The trimaran continued to roll, the mast hit the water, broke, and the multihull ended up upside down. "We landed on the cockpit ceiling, which became the floor," Tanguy continues, still in shock. "On contact with the water and our two bodies fell, it exploded. Then the water rushed in, and within seconds, we were up to our chins." The two sailors found themselves trapped.

"It's traumatic because, quite literally, you're in the water, with a boat above your head, in the Raz Blanchard with a 6-knot current, 30-knot winds, and boats all around." While the Breton skipper admits he didn't panic, fear quickly gripped them. The water rose, they ran out of air, and the aft hatch was blocked by bags. "It lasted five or ten seconds maybe," Tanguy recounts, "but they felt like
hours. I was thinking: we're going to drown here like two idiots." Miraculously, the hatch opened. Fueled by adrenaline, the two skippers managed to climb into the central hull, and the reflexes learned during survival training returned instantly. "Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is Lazare." The distress message was sent, and the beacons were activated. Half an hour later, the helicopter from the French Navy's 32F Squadron arrived. "We were definitely on the edge of life and death," Tanguy confides. All that remained was to be hoisted aboard, another harrowing moment as he watched his friend Erwan rise above the waves. "It was very hard. I felt so alone on board the boat, and Erwan felt like he was abandoning his friend."

Although the sailors were still battered, both physically and emotionally, they were acutely aware of their good fortune. Their severely damaged boat was recovered and brought back to Cherbourg, now awaiting tow to Brittany when weather permits. Then will come the time for rebuilding, "human life problems" as Tanguy keeps repeating.

KOESIO, "the diver had to make two attempts to retrieve Erwan."

The entire fleet heard Tanguy and Erwan's rescue over the VHF radio. Each pair is on high alert. At 2:25 a.m., another alert: Koesio has
just capsized. "We caught a strong gust, the autopilot couldn't hold. Audrey and I immediately eased the sails, but the boat continued on its course. With the waves, we were both thrown sideways." The boat heeled over at a 90° angle, the mast broke, and the water rushed in. "It rushed in very quickly," recalls Audrey, still shaken. Erwan, for his part, felt himself "sinking as the boat went down" with "water up to his waist." The pair quickly took refuge inside the boat. Audrey examined the structure.

"We checked that we still had both floats, the rudders, the foils, to try to understand what had happened." But the boat continued to drift dangerously towards the Channel Islands. CROSS Jobourg contacted the crew and urged them to evacuate. A second helicopter rescue was carried out by the French Navy. “We had just watched Erwan and Tanguy’s rescue live on the VHF radio,” Audrey recounts, “so it was a bit surreal, but we knew what to expect. Except ours wasn’t easy. The diver had to try twice to get Erwan out. And seeing the boat from the helicopter… You see that in photos in magazines, but when it’s your own boat, it’s not the same.”

The multihull continued drifting, haunted by the fear of being torn apart on the coast. Yet, the sea decided to spare it and deposited it on a beach in Guernesy "When you see the track the boat is making on AIS, it's avoiding rocky outcrops, we don't really know how," Erwan marvels. The very next day, the team went to the site, collected all the debris, and made the initial assessments. After being transferred to Saint Peter's Port, the trimaran was towed back to Saint-Malo by the well know"L'Express." It should soon return to its home port in La Rochelle.

INTER INVEST, "We'll have to learn to sail after capsizing."

It really was a cursed first night of racing. Shortly after 5 a.m., fate dealt another cruel blow; it was Matthieu Perrault and Jean-Baptiste Gellée's turn to face the same ordeal. The duo was sailing off the coast of Brittany, in a strong wind, but without a cloud in sight. “We had checked that there were no more clouds on the radar, that we were safe from squalls,” Matthieu recalls. “When we
turned around, we even saw the stars.” In a matter of seconds, the wind shifted, and so did the boat. The sails were eased, but even that wasn’t enough. “We didn’t feel the boat lean on the mast; everything broke at once.” The two sailors activated their beacons and called race control. “Thibaut and Damien (Solidaire en Peloton) weren’t far behind us. We were terrified they were going to run
us over.” A relay was established between race control, the CROSS (Regional Operational Surveillance and Rescue Center), and Merida, Adrien Hardy’s boat specially equipped to tow sailboats in distress. Within an hour, the rescue team was on site, and the boat and sailors were taken care of. “We were able to attach the towline ourselves to the bow of the boat before Adrien arrived,” Matthieu recounts. "When it arrived, the towing operation began very quickly. When I was hoisted into the helicopter, I could see the boat below me. It was secured, moored, ready to go." 

Once ashore, the solidarity of the sailing community kicked in. The technical teams from Wewise and Alexia Barrier (The Famous Project) came to their aid, lending equipment and rigid inflatable boats. A chain of solidarity and a close-knit team within Inter Invest enabled the boat to be secured in Le Croisic.

After the initial shock and the repatriation, these six sailors are left with a strange feeling that mixes fear, apprehension, and emptiness. "Of course, there's the question of the next race, when we'll have to get back on board, probably single-handed," admits Matthieu. "We'll have to learn to sail after capsizing." A fear factor that they share in pairs and even in groups of six, as Tanguy Le Turquais sums up: "even if it's an event we don't want to experience, it remains something unique and something we will share with our partner for the rest of our lives."