The two skippers who had capsized were recovered by rescuer Adrien Hardy and by Jean-Pierre Dick in the race while the former journalist got confused.
Skipper Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, who capsized on Saturday evening on the Route du Rhum, was rescued on Sunday morning after spending the night in the central hull of his trimaran Solidaires en peloton-Arsep, his team announced. The Merida rescue boat, chartered by former skipper Adrien Hardy especially for this type of operation, arrived in the area at night and was able to recover Vauchel-Camus once daylight broke. The Merida team is now working to secure the capsized trimaran with the aim of towing it to the Azores, 240 nautical miles further south.
While leading the provisional ranking of the Ocean Fifty (15m trimarans), Vauchel-Camus capsized around 7:00 p.m. GMT, for an as yet undetermined reason. He had just crossed the short but violent cold front which shook almost the entire fleet and also caused three dismasting today and the capsizing of Brieuc Maisonneuve’s CMA Ile de France catamaran. The sailor was picked up by Jean-Pierre Dick, leading sailor in the Rhum Mono category on his sailboat Notre Méditerranée – Ville, who turned away to pick up the unfortunate skipper.
Amedeo touched
The three sailors who dismasted — Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée, Imoca), Amélie Grassi (La Boulangère Bio, Class40) and Aurélien Ducroz (Crosscall, Class40) are also unharmed and are heading at a slow pace towards Cape Finisterre, west of Spain. For his part, Fabrice Amedeo (Nexans Arts & Fenêtres) saw his starboard ballast break causing a leak in his boat and the flooding of his batteries. Our former colleague from Le Figaro is heading to Cascaïs in Portugal, while Mikaël Mergui (Class 40 Centrakor) announced who was heading to La Coruña for a pit stop.