A full-bore collision mid-Channel left a Class 40 smashed in half and its two skippers clinging to wreckage. Helen Fretter gets the full storyThirty-one Class 40s started the CIC Normandy Channel Race on Sunday, 25 May, one of the first big races of the season. It had been a tough test from the outset, with 25 knots and a building forecast. By Tuesday there had been several retirements, including a collision between two boats on the start, a dismasting and gear failures. But the Class 40 is one of the most competitive fleets around \u2013 entries included Vend\u00e9e Globe legends Michel Desjoyeaux and Vincent Riou, such is the level of experience.
\nThe double-handed pairings had rounded the Isle of Wight, and were zigzagging their way across the English Channel and its tough tidal races. Jay Thompson, an American who has spent much of the last decade in France working with big IMOCA teams, was racing #Empowher with Irish co-skipper Pamela Lee. He recalls: \u201cIt was quite a hard race. We\u2019d had 25-35 knots of upwind, basically the entire race. So everyone was really tired.\u201d
\nFaced with forecasts of 40+ knots in the Celtic Sea, race organisers had altered course to take the fleet back across the Ouessant Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS, or DST in French). This is common \u2013 the Class 40s, along with the Figaro and other classes, frequently race across the shipping areas, though the diversion meant this particular race would cross a TSS six times.
\n\u201cWe had just passed the most southern mark,\u201d Thompson continues. \u201cWe were going upwind, but slightly open. It was like a tight reach, about 80\u00b0 or so true wind angle. At that time, there was 25 knots, pretty steady, with 28 knot gusts sometimes. So mostly everybody was sailing with a J1 and one reef in the main. We were on port tack, sailing north \u2013 basically to Fastnet, which was going to be our last mark before we came back to Caen, to finish.
\n\u201cThere was pretty good visibility. And there were big waves, about 2.5m or so of swell because a large front had just passed through.\u201d
\nEvent map showing the original CIC Normandy Channel Race course
\nBusy traffic
\nC\u00e9dric de Kervenoa\u00ebl and Thomas Jourdren were about a mile ahead of #Empowher on their sistership Pogo S4 NST Cabinet Z. Not all the Class 40 skippers are pro sailors \u2013 de Kervenoa\u00ebl is a lawyer during the week, but has been offshore racing for 30 years, and in the Class 40 fleet for a decade. He is also class president. Co-skipper Jourdren, 25, is a pr\u00e9parateur for Class 40s and has competed in the Transat Jacques Vabre.
\nDe Kervenoa\u00ebl says: \u201cIt had been two days of really, really tough sailing because the boats are very hard now. The scows are not so difficult to sail, but difficult to live in. You cannot eat, you cannot sleep.
\n\u201cWe crossed the Channel very, very quickly. And when we rounded the buoy, near Ouessant, it was about 1800-1900. We were preparing for about 15 hours of very [high] speed [sailing] and the wind to be stronger when we arrived at the Fastnet.\u201d
\n\u201cI was not really sleeping inside, but I\u2019d kept my oilskins on. Really I was wondering if I could put my oilskins out because everything was so wet, but I had no motivation to do that. That proved quite useful later.\u201d
\nThompson had a clear visual of NST Cabinet Z as they chased north. \u201cWe were slightly south and east of their position, just a bit to leeward. So I could see him quite well \u2013 well, I could see his navigation light as it was 0200 in the morning. We were on port tack, and so off to the port side is really clear. It\u2019s really hard to see things that are on starboard because they\u2019re underneath the sails and the waves and the spray.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe were crossing the DST off Ouessant, which is the turning point. And it\u2019s quite a busy one. My skipper, Pamela, was relaxing inside, and I was out in the cockpit just racing the boat. We have a screen on the outside, so I\u2019m able to see the AIS and also do the sail adjustments at the same time.
\n\u201cI noticed two cargos that were coming westbound. They would have been east of us. So they\u2019re in that zone that\u2019s difficult to see. And I could see that the crossing was going to be quite close. At that point, you\u2019re paying more attention, and I\u2019m trying to understand how I\u2019m going to go around these two ships as well. Both boats had about 16-18 knots of boat speed or so.\u201d
\nOn board NST Cabinet Z C\u00e9dric de Kervenoa\u00ebl heard his co-skipper on the VHF radio. \u201cHe was calling the cargo, but he was speaking very low, so I didn\u2019t hear exactly what he said. But I learned afterwards that 25 minutes before the collision, he tried to call the cargo. The cargo didn\u2019t answer. And after that, they answered.
\n\u201c[Thomas] told them that, on the AIS, we were crossing in front of the cargo and he wanted to be sure that the cargo had seen us. And the guy answered, \u2018Okay, I move my course\u2019.\u201d
\n\u201cAnd maybe five or seven minutes after, I heard the same guy saying, \u2018Well, you\u2019re not a sailing boat, you take me for a piece of shit.\u2019\u201d
\n31 Class 40s started the 2025 CIC Normandy Channel Race, an approximately 1,000-mile double-handed offshore race around the English Channel and Celtic Sea. Photo: Photos: Jean-Marie Liot\/CIC NCR
\nNot clear
\nMonitoring the situation, Thompson recalls. \u201cI heard 191 (NST Cabinet Z) call one of the cargo ships and ask if he can pass ahead. And the guy responds by saying, \u2018Yeah, you can pass ahead.\u2019
\n\u201cI would say by then we\u2019re quite close to the cargo, getting within a mile or so \u2013 I did a couple of degrees [adjustment] to just pass behind it, and he was going to try to pass in front of it, basically in between the two cargos, because one was going to be clear ahead.
\n\u201cThen a few moments later, the guy [on the cargo] comes back on the radio and says, \u2018You are the give-way vessel. YOU are the one that\u2019s going to move out of the way.\u2019 And he says it in a way that\u2019s really kind of unprofessional. It was more in his intonation \u2013 angry or upset.\u201d Thompson didn\u2019t hear anything further in the VHF exchange.
\nOn NST Cabinet Z de Kervenoa\u00ebl got up in alarm.
\nC\u00e9dric de Kervenoa\u00ebl (on left) and Thomas Jourdren. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/CIC NCR
\n\u201cI said to Thomas, \u2018Did you understand what he said?\u2019 He was not sure, but I understood very well. So I took the radio, and I told them, \u2018Yes, we are a sailing racing boat. That\u2019s why we are fast.\u2019 Because I suppose those guys are used to crossing sailing boats at 6.5 knots \u2013 not when they\u2019re going at 15 knots.
\n\u201cBut the guy [on the cargo] didn\u2019t answer me. I looked at the chart and I asked Thomas, \u2018Okay, look, look, where is the boat? Where is the boat?\u2019 He went outside and said, \u2018It doesn\u2019t cross, it doesn\u2019t cross, it doesn\u2019t cross!\u2019
\n\u201cAnd then we were crushed by the ship.\u201d
\nHit and run
\nThompson had heard the conversation and noted it as odd. Watching from #Empowher. \u201cI could see the Class 40 and the cargo ship\u2019s lights coming together. And then I see just the cargo lights, so I assume he passed in front.
\n\u201cThen I hear on the VHF a guy comes back on \u2013 which I assume is the cargo ship because he says, \u2018You need to call the Cross.\u2019 I thought that\u2019s a weird thing to say.
\n\u201cI waited maybe 30 seconds, the cargo ship continues on, and I don\u2019t see the lights of the Class 40 anymore. Then I look at my screen, and their AIS has disappeared on the screen. I pick up the VHF and I call NST. She doesn\u2019t answer. And so I tell Pam, there might be a situation here. Then a radio call comes in. He says, \u2018Mayday, the boat is cut in half. We\u2019ve de-masted. Come and get us now.\u2019
\nC\u00e9dric de Kervenoa\u00ebl and Thomas Jourdren were racing NST Cabinet Z. Photo: Photos: Jean-Marie Liot\/CIC NCR
\n\u201cIt was very crackly because it was just a handheld VHF. So I responded, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re going to come right away.\u2019\u201d
\nThompson readied his Class 40 \u2013 furling the jib and starting the engine, while Lee relayed the Mayday to the Cross Corsen \u2013 the French maritime rescue service. Jourdren had also activated the EPIRB on NST.
\nIt\u2019s not totally clear what the cargo skipper meant when he said \u2018You need to call the Cross,\u2019 but Thompson believes he was telling the yacht they needed to call the rescue services themselves after the impact. The ship did not stop to offer assistance.
\n\u201cWhen I saw the AIS disappear, I just put a very quick waypoint on the Adrena of where it happened,\u201d recalls Thompson, \u201cSo we headed over to that zone. We were there within 10 minutes.
\n\u201cWe could see that the boat was in pieces. The bow was apart but attached, and the mast laying in the middle with the sail. The cockpit was slightly sticking out of the water, but most of the back half of the boat was underwater.\u201d
\nClass 40 rules require each yacht to have large blocks of foam for flotation built-in both forward and aft. \u201cWith the keel, the aft section was barely floating, nearly vertical. The crew were on the starboard pushpit. It was the only section that was out of the water, but with the waves, it was still going in the water. We could just see their reflectives on their jackets because we had a big spotlight. That\u2019s how we spotted them,\u201d Thompson adds.
\nThe Cross rescue confirmed that a helicopter could be with them in 40 minutes. They also halted all shipping traffic in the area around the disabled yacht.
\n\u201cWe asked C\u00e9dric and Thomas: \u2018Do you have your TPS survival suits?\u2019 They said, no, all they had was a handheld VHF. So we relayed that, and the Cross said, \u2018Well, you really need to try to get them off because 40 minutes in the water is going to be a long time.\u2019
\nPamela Lee and Jay Thompson are campaigning the Pogo S4 #Empowher. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/CIC NCR
\n\u201cWe instructed the crew to inflate their liferaft, get into the raft, then let it float behind the boat. Because with the wreckage and everything in the big swell, it would have been almost guaranteed that we would put a hole in our boat if we even got close. But when they tried to inflate the liferaft, the liferaft didn\u2019t open.\u201d
\nNext the crew of #Empowher tried a different plan \u2013 inflating their own raft, with the intention of letting it drift down to the stranded crew. \u201cWe went just upwind of the boat and opened the raft. This was when it got really crazy because I looked down for two seconds to help Pam get the liferaft out of the back. And when we looked up we couldn\u2019t see the boat anywhere. It happens so quickly that you can lose somebody. It took a little moment for us to search around to find them again.
\n\u201cThen Pam opened the liferaft, and everything went perfect. She was holding on to the rope at the back of the transom. I\u2019m driving the boat, trying to hold station, just to windward so that she could let the raft down to them. And then Pam tells me \u201cThere\u2019s nothing on the rope.\u201d
\nThe rope had detached from #Empowher\u2019s liferaft. Having had the scare of losing sight of the Class 40, Jay and Pam decided not to attempt to recover the raft, but instead to keep eyes on the crew \u2013 not an easy task short-handed.
\n\u201cThe boats are not easy at all. In one moment, you\u2019re going super fast because you\u2019re going downwind and down swell, kind of surfing. Then the next, you\u2019re trying to go upwind super slow. And you\u2019re trying to stay close, but not too close.
\nPamela Lee and Jay Thompson on #Empowher. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/CIC NCR
\nPam was handling all the communications, I was just driving and trying to always keep a visual on the boat, basically making anticlockwise loops around them, which was easiest for me because the port side is where the controls are for the motor.\u201d
\nCedric and Thomas confirmed that their situation on the disabled NST Cabinet Z was stable \u2013 not sinking, but cold, so #Empowher kept circling for another 20 minutes.
\n\u201cI think the most stressful part for us was when there was about 10 minutes left to go for the helicopter to arrive,\u201d recalls Thompson. \u201cEvery time we did a circle, we would check in with them. But after that 10-minute point, we could start to hear in their voices how they were in themselves [going downhill] a bit. They were asking, \u2018Where are you? Where are you guys? I don\u2019t see you anymore.\u2019\u201d
\nFortunately the helicopter arrived from Brest shortly after, and the rescue divers swiftly lifted the two men to safety \u2013 Jourdren first, as he was suffering from severe cold, then de Kervenoa\u00ebl, who had broken four ribs in the impact, but \u2013 remarkably \u2013 both were otherwise unharmed.
\nLessons learned
\nBoth Thompson and de Kervenoa\u00ebl commented on how the Offshore Personal Survival training had helped in the moment. \u201cIt was a bit terrifying,\u201d admits de Kervenoa\u00ebl.
\n\u201cBut as soon as we crashed and saw that we were both still on the boat, we did the job we had to do. The sea survival training was very useful. When you are in this situation, you know exactly what you have to do. So there was no panic. We knew that someone would come and that it would be too stupid to die in that place! It was just a question of time.\u201d
\nHowever, Thompson notes that one thing that could improve the training is more on boat-to-boat rescues.
\nIn a separate incident two Class 40s collided at the race start. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/CIC NCR
\n\u201cActually there\u2019s quite a lot of scenarios where one boat is assisting another sailing boat, and that\u2019s often not really taught too much. It\u2019s mainly about what happens when the helicopter comes or a cargo ship.
\n\u201cFor example, something I\u2019d never actually thought about before, was that the rafts have something like 300kg of water ballast. So you can\u2019t just drag it wherever. You either have to get rid of the water ballast once you deploy the raft, or make sure that you don\u2019t inflate it until you\u2019re in the exact right area.\u201d
\nThat two rafts failed in an emergency situation is something the class is taking very seriously. Both boats were carrying Waypoint rafts, favoured by Class 40 skippers for their light weight. The class has since mandated an alternative Plastimo raft, which is around 12kg heavier. Waypoint is also investigating the cause of the failures \u2013 Thompson confirmed he was visited by the manufacturer to discuss what happened and view the liferaft on NST Cabinet Z (the Class 40 hull was salvaged).
\nC\u00e9dric de Kervenoa\u00ebl speaks to the media after his dramatic rescue. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/CIC NCR
\nDe Kervenoa\u00ebl says the class will also look into liferaft positioning (both the Pogo S4s had their raft stowed on the transom), and how grab bags can be best secured within reach. \u201cMaybe it should be attached somewhere because I was very lucky to find it floating beside the boat. But if we hadn\u2019t had the grab bag, with the VHF, it would have been another story.\u201d
\nThe collision itself is subject to a police investigation. The cargo ship Ital Bonny, which was Italian flagged, was intercepted by a French warship and escorted to shore.
\n\u201cClearly, a conversation was going on about taking avoiding action, and for some reason, that didn\u2019t happen. In terms of the angle [crossing the TSS], there was no fault. The race crew did everything right,\u201d an experienced Class 40 sailor told me, who didn\u2019t want to be identified.
\nHowever, as the confusion on the VHF shows, calling a cargo ship is no guarantee of a safe outcome. \u201cI basically never call the ships,\u201d says Thompson, \u201cjust because in my experience, it\u2019s very rare that it goes well. Often you have a lot of different nationalities so it\u2019s quite difficult to speak with them. So I think that should be your secondary step \u2013 if you need to do it. The very first step should be to adjust your course early so that it doesn\u2019t become an issue.
\nC\u00e9dric thanks Thompson and Lee for their part in saving him and his co-skipper. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/CIC NCR
\n\u201cWhen we\u2019re crossing the lanes, closing speed starts to get so quick because we\u2019re averaging between 16-18 knots, and the cargos are going anywhere from 12-18 normally. When you\u2019re going 6 knots, you have so much more time.
\n\u201cSo it\u2019s really important to get that visual \u2013 because the moment you get a visual, normally you can tell fairly easily how it\u2019s going to cross. Sometimes it\u2019s difficult, and you have to do that painful thing of letting the sheets go and the boat slow down a bit, or even turn downwind for a second to make sure that you can really see.
\n\u201cOften, those decisions that we figure would be quite standard end up being really difficult when you haven\u2019t slept for a couple of days. It\u2019s definitely the most stressful and difficult thing on these races, because we\u2019re basically crossing a freeway on a bicycle.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The post \u2018Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! The boat is cut in half\u2019 appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A full-bore collision mid-Channel left a Class 40 smashed in half and its two skippers clinging to wreckage. Helen Fretter gets the full storyThirty-one Class 40s started the CIC Normandy Channel Race on Sunday, 25 May, one of the first … <\/p>\n