FR
ENMost of them are not out of the woods yet, but having brought the start forwards at the request of the class, but most thought the Ocean Fifty’s would be spared the worst of it by setting off 22 hours before the official start.
First night spills…. leave a stain
Ocean Fifty
26 October 2025 - 09h55
Less than 12 hours after their start which was advanced to Saturday, the 10 strong Ocean Fifty class has lost nearly one third of its complement. Lazare X Hellio, Koesio, and Inter Invest capsized. The skippers are all safe and sound, but this worrying sequence raises numerous questions.
The sequence began at 8:27 PM lUTC ast night for Lazare X Hellio. Just outside the narrows between the Cotentin Peninsula and the Casquets TSS, the course taken by all the Ocean Fifty sailors, Tanguy Le Turquais and Erwan Le Draoulec's trimaran capsized 3 miles off Cape La Hague.
"We were upwind, the sea was unpleasant but not overwhelming. It became very rough as we passed through the Alderney Race, and that's when we capsized," says Tanguy. “What was very strange was that we capsized by the bow, as if we were downwind. Twenty minutes before the capsize, Erwan and I heard a boom. When we capsized a little later, we realized we had become a catamaran; part of the port float had torn off, which is what clearly caused the boat to capsize."
"We were in super-safe mode..."
The news came as the fleet was on a fast reach toward Ushant in very unstable weather, with gusts of 40 knots sometimes reaching double the average wind speed. Even if the sea was not terrible, these are the worst conditions for controlling the power of these light, fast trimarans which needs a minimum of sail to stay airborne and is therefore very exposed to the gusts.
With three victories in the Route du Café and two in the Route du Rhum, Erwan Le Roux knows this inside out. He's was sailing the second row, leaving Edenred and WeWise to lead the way. And yet, he was also caught out, and everything changes at 2:25 a.m., north of Guernsey.
His teammate Audrey Augereau recounts: "We were in super safe mode, each with one hand on a sheet, when the boat heeled and capsized. We had wind angles varying from 20 to 30 degrees, with surges from 18 to 35 knots. We think we took a squall at 40 knots. We had eased everything up, the mainsail was no longer carried by the wind, and yet the boat still took off."
It was the turn of Inter Invest, led by Matthieu Perrat and Jean-Baptiste Gellée, to experience the same mishap at 5:05 a.m. off the coast of AberWrac'h. As with the other two Ocean Fiftys, the crew was quickly airlifted and suffered only bruises. As we go to press, Lazare, taken in by the SNSM, is safe in Cherbourg, while InterInvest is under tow heading to Brest or Camaret. The situation is much more critical for Koesio, in more danger as they were upwind of the Guernsey coast...
The race continues
At the head of the race, WeWise, led by Paul Quiroga and Gaston Morvan, is making headway in the Bay of Biscay at an average speed of over 20 knots downwind. They are 20 miles ahead of Edenred 5 (Emmanuel Le Roch-Basile Bourgnon). The all-female crew of UpWind by Mer Concept, Elodie Jane Mettraux and Anne Claire Le Berrer was still to pass Ushant, is bringing up the rear, nearly 100 miles behind, while Viabilis Océans (Baptiste Hulin-Thomas Rouxel) has decided to make a technical stopover at AberWrac'h.