One skipper abandons ship after his IMOCA explodes into flames, another is rescued by a fellow competitor after capsizing, and a third has their trimaran shipwrecked on the Spanish shore – the latest incidents in the Route du Rhum 2022Fabrice Amedeo in the water awaiting rescueIt has been another intense 24 hours in the Route du Rhum 2022, with two dramatic mid-ocean rescues, as well as multiple other abandonments as the 138-boat fleet continues to contend with punishing transatlantic conditions.
\nMost dramatic was Fabrice Amedeo\u2019s mid-ocean rescue. Amedeo was forced to abandon his IMOCA 60 Nexans \u2013 Art et Fen\u00eatres after it literally exploded into fire mid-ocean. He was rescued by a nearby freighter M\/V Maersk Brida.
\nAmedeo, a former journalist turned ocean racer, gave an extraordinary description of the events leading up to his rescue:
\n\u201cSunday morning: everything is fine on board and I\u2019m having a great race. The boat is flying hard in the squalls and the sea is heavy. Suddenly, I realise that my ballast has exploded on a wave and that I have several hundred litres of water in the boat. I stop to be safe and start to empty everything.
\n\u201cAt that moment, the batteries are immediately affected by the water and failed and I had a complete blackout on board. I have no more electricity: no more autopilot, no more computer, no more electronics. I decide, in consultation with my team, to proceed cautiously towards Cascais.
\n\u201cSunday afternoon: big smoke on board the boat. I use the extinguisher, I put on my TPS (survival suit). I alert the race direction who asks a competitor in IMOCA to divert to assist me if necessary. The smoke eventually stops. I decide to resume my passage to Cascais.
\nAn image sent by Fabrice Amedeo shortly after radioing for help. Photo: Fabrice Amedeo \/ Nexans \u2013 Art et Fen\u00eatres
\n\u201cI meet James Harayda, the skipper of Gentoo who had come to the area to help me. I thank him and resume my passage. I completely dry the boat and prepare myself for a difficult passage\u2026
\n\u201cAgain 2h30 of siesta then 7 hours on the helm. Shortly after 1230 pm more new smoke on board. Followed by an explosion. I grope my way back into the cabin and manage to retrieve my TPS. My Grab bag (survival bag) had remained in the cockpit. I\u2019m going back to get my wedding ring. I hit the fire extinguisher but nothing happens. The smoke is not white like yesterday but yellow. The cockpit warps and yellows. Seawater spray sounds like the sound of water hitting a saucepan. I understand that I will have to evacuate. I warn my team of a possible evacuation.
\n\u201cWhen I hang up, I am then at the back of the boat ready to trigger my survival: a torrent of flame comes out of the cabin and the coachroof. I am caught in the middle of the flames. I can\u2019t even open my eyes. I manage to push the life raft into the water and jump.
\n\u201cNormally the end that holds the liferaft to the boat is supposed to let go. It doesn\u2019t let go. The boat, which\u2026 is still going forwards pushed by rough seas, pulls it and it fills with water. I manage to get on board without letting go\u2026 I say to myself \u201cif you want to live you have a few seconds to find the knife and cut\u201d. The IMOCA pulls me back towards it. The waves bring me dangerously close to it. I finally find the knife and cut. My raft is drifting downwind of the boat which is fully on fire. It takes 30 minutes to sink. I spoke to the boat and thanked it. We were going to go round the world together in two years time.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDismastings, a capsize and damage toll rises in Route du Rhum<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Route du Rhum\u2019s reputation as one of the toughest offshore races in the solo sailing calendar is proving to\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUPDATE: Route du Rhum 2022 start postponed. Is this the greatest ever offshore race?<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Route du Rhum 2022 single-handed transatlantic race start has been postponed until Wednesday 9 November. The decision was announced\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you have to get organised. The satellite phone did not like the water in the raft and doesn\u2019t work.
\n\u201cI say to myself: \u2018nobody knows that the boat has sunk and that you are in your raft, if you activate the beacon on the IMOCA that you were able to take with you and you trigger the one on the liferaft they will have the information\u2019. That\u2019s what I do. I can\u2019t find a baler [sic] on board. A Tupperware box containing batteries will save me. I empty the raft. I begin the wait. I stand behind the raft so that it does not overturn.
\n\u201cThe sea is very, very big. I take stock of the equipment on board and prepare for what\u2019s next. I gather the flares. I put the VHF around my neck. I spend three to four hours in this raft. I am surprisingly calm. The raft regularly fills with water from the lightly breaking waves. I understand all this but feel safe. I know, however, that nothing is over.
\n\u201cEvery 30 minutes, to preserve the batteries, I make a Mayday call on the VHF. I took the VHF on board thanks to \u00c9ric, my team manager, who had time to give me this advice just before I hung up. I keep the batteries of the raft for later.
\n\u201cA few minutes later a voice answers me. A cargo ship which is 6 miles from my position arrives in the area. I\u2019m reassured but don\u2019t see how I\u2019m going to board such a giant with this sea. I\u2019m in constant contact on the VHF with the captain who can\u2019t see me: the sea is big and the sun is on the water and I\u2019m a tiny orange dot. He told me earlier: \u2018You are alive because you told me: I am approximately 2 miles from your starboard side\u2019.
\nFabrice Amedeo in the water awaiting rescue
\n\u201cI launch a distress flare. He sees me. He loses me. I hit a second one. He sees me and arrives in the area. He tries a first approach which fails. It is very impressive to be in my inflatable raft a few metres from this steel giant. He apologises on the VHF and leaves for an approach. As it passes, the wake builds, the raft fills with loads of water. He repositions himself upwind of me, a few metres away, it\u2019s crazy, and drifts towards me. This building calms the sea a little and sucks me in. The raft rubs against the hull from front to back. If that doesn\u2019t work it will very quickly become complicated. The crew threw ropes at me that I couldn\u2019t recover at all at first.
\n\u201cEventually I retrieve one near the bow of the ship. Everything is played out down to the wire. There is the thickness of that line between success and failure, survival and drama. The crew pulls me to a gangway that has been dropped. With the waves I sometimes go up to the level of the top of the steps then go down 5 metres below. This is one last test. If the liferaft goes under the stairs it will be pierced and I will be thrown into the water. I approach. A first time: I don\u2019t feel it\u2019s right. A second wave, I go up and hop. I jump on the stairs which I reach, then find myself in the arms of a man wearing a helmet. I climb on deck.
\n\u201cI am welcomed by about 20 crew members. It\u2019s crazy right now. They take me in their arms, congratulate me.
\n\u201cOnce I am on board the freighter, the fear and adrenaline surge. My legs are shaking. It\u2019s crazy, this animal capacity that humans have to manage a survival situation. Then it hits home. Death did not want me today or rather life did not want me to leave it. I\u2019m devastated but the happiest of men because tonight my wife and daughters aren\u2019t going to bed crying.
\n\u201cThis adventure in no way alters my passion for my job and for the ocean. I would like to thank my team, the race management of the Route du Rhum \u2013 Destination Guadeloupe, the rescue teams, who worked to ensure that this rescue operation took place in the best possible conditions.
\n\u201cI also think of my partners. I thank them for their trust. I will bounce back. We will bounce back.\u201d
\nMaisonneuve\u2019s Marsaudon catamaran, CMA \u00eele de France \u2013 60000.
\nRoute du Rhum rescue for Brieuc Maisonneuve
\nThe previous day Jean-Pierre Dick had rescued fellow competitor Brieuc Maisonneuve after Maisonneuve\u2019s Marsaudon catamaran (CMA \u00eele de France \u2013 60000) capsized.
\nDick, a former IMOCA skipper who was racing his Verdier-designed one-off in the Rhum Mono class, diverted course and was able to recover Maisonneuve from the hull of his upturned catamaran.
\nMaisonneuve\u2019s team is now focussing on a salvage effort. The upturned multihull is halfway between La Coru\u00f1a and the Azores, around 400 miles from the Spanish port.
\nAdrien Hardy, offshore racer who specialises in these types of rescue operations, is already working in the area on the recovery of the capsized Ocean Fifty trimaran Solidaires En Peloton \u2013 ARSEP. Skipper Thibaut Vauchel-Camus was rescued on Sunday by the rescue boat Merida.
\nA shot from onboard one of the dismasted Class 40s
\nShipwrecked and rescued
\nA third skipper was rescued this morning (Tuesday 15th November) while their trimaran beached. Erwan Thiboum\u00e9ry had been heading for La Coru\u00f1a (Spain) after suffering a series of problems with both sails and engine on his Nigel Irens-designed 50ft trimaran, Interaction, which he was sailing in the Multi Rhum class.
\nAt 0444hrs today Thiboum\u00e9ry reported that he had lost manoeuvrability of the trimaran and was in difficulty off the coast of Spain. The skipper was lifted off by helicopter, while his boat drifted onto a beach in Ferreira.
\nSo far 21 skippers have been forced to retire: 13 Class 40s, 4 IMOCAs, 2 Rhum Multi entrants and 2 in the Ocean Fifty class. They include Australian Rupert Henry overnight, whose Class40 has suffered structural damage to a forward bulkhead, and, fellow Class 40 sailor Fran\u00e7ois Jambou whose A l\u2019Aveugle \u2013 Trim Control dismasted, and Matthieu Perraut who had a collision with an underwater object, damaging the keel fairing, port rudder and caused major delamination of crash box area in the bottom of the hull.
\nCharles Caudrelier currently leas the Ultime class on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut \/ PolaRYSE \/ Gitana
\nRoute du Rhum cliffhanger
\nImpressively, the Ultimes have suffered fewer problems with foil damage following collisions in this race.
\nAboard SVR-Lazartigue, Francois Gabart had a technical issue with a board control line, but was able to repair it. \u201cI broke the line that lifts and lowers the port foil. I slowed down for two or three hours to repair that. I hesitated but with the team we said there was still a lot of starboard tack before the finish, but I lost quite a few miles after being pleased about my position to leeward of Charles.\u201d
\n\u201cThe pace is quite intense. Since the start, we\u2019ve had upwind tacking, the first front with lots of sail changes, then upwind on the other tack, then some reaching, a second front in the Azores and some more reaching, and now we\u2019re downwind. But that\u2019s what you can expect in the Route du Rhum.\u201d
\nHe and race leader Charles Caudrelier on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild are now less than 500 miles from the finish in Guadaloupe, and expected to arrive early tomorrow morning (Wednesday 16 November).
\nCaudrelier currently has an 80-mile lead over Gabart, but the notoriously light and fickle winds around the island of Guadaloupe could see that advantage dissipate in the final moments.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not over before Guadeloupe! Concentration and rest are on the agenda for the day,\u201d he commented this morning. \u201cI don\u2019t have enough of a lead to relax completely.
\n\u201cWhat worries me is the bit around Guadeloupe. I\u2019m afraid that Fran\u00e7ois will \u2018do a Joyon\u2019, that he will take revenge for the last time!\u201d, added Caudrelier, recalling how Joyon slipped past Gabart to take the win in light winds during the last night of the 2018 Route du Rhum race.
\n\u201cI will get there at the wrong time, at the beginning of the night in local time. At this time of the day, the winds are not yet coming down off the land. Everything is in place to create a cliffhanger of a finish just like you like on land, but one you hate at sea as a racer\u201d.
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One skipper abandons ship after his IMOCA explodes into flames, another is rescued by a fellow competitor after capsizing, and a third has their trimaran shipwrecked on the Spanish shore – the latest incidents in the Route du Rhum 2022Fabrice … <\/p>\n