Vendée Globe

A month after the start of the first Vendée Globe, Titouan Lamazou was in the lead in the rankings, closely followed by Philippe Poupon.  On the night of 27th December 1989, the Breton sailor was making good speed aboard his Fleury Michon.  For ten hours, the wind had been getting up and the seas becoming higher and higher.  Located at 47° south and 01° west, or around 1200 nautical miles WSW of Cape Town, the ketch experienced her first big storm. Confident and determined, «Philou» was galloping along, when suddenly the boat went out of control and went over on her side...She remained like that until Loïck Peyron arrived to help.  Here is the story of that extraordinary rescue.

The boat would not right herself (extract from «13 solo sailors around the world»: «There are 5.4 tonnes of lead at the bottom of her 4 metre keel and she should come back up. Poupon counts. Rolling around at 90° or 100°.  She is stuck on her side.15 seconds. Nothing. Like a wounded animal, his boat shakes. 20 seconds. Still nothing…»  The sailor crawls along to the cockpit, which is partly submerged in icy water.  He manages to ease the sheets to ease the pressure on the sails. Still nothing. Waves slam into the helpless creature trying to turn her over.  Something has to be done. Philou opens the ballast tank valve on the windward side. 2500 litres of water pour out, but the hull does not stir. The skipper tries the opposite manoeuvre and fills the leeward ballast tanks to create some momentum, in order to wake up the boat lying on her side. But nothing happens. 

Alert
At 11h50 on 28th December, Race HQ received a call from the Cross Etel (French coastguard centre). A distress signal from a Sarsat beacon had been picked up at 8h30 from Fleury Michon. It was not known whether the beacon was triggered manually or automatically by the hydrostatic system.  They would get an answer a few hours later from the Argos centre in Toulouse. Philou manually triggered the second beacon. So he was still alive, on board his boat or liferaft. Alive, but in difficulty.  He had to be rescued.  Out on the water, Loïck Peyron, then in third place changes course to head for Poupon located 135 nautical miles to his south. He had to sail upwind in 40 knots of wind and huge seas to reach the position he had been given.  At the same time a reconnaissance flight was being set up. A Lockheed Hercules C 130 H from the South African Navy base in Johannesburg was due to take off at midnight, stopping at Cape Town and would reach the French sailor at daybreak.

Flight
At 8h23, on 29th December, the C 130 flew over the boat in distress.  By flying past at low level, the crew was shocked to see the boat over on her side, like a small dinghy.  Suddenly, they spotted a dark patch on the deck line: it was Poupon in his survival gear.  The information was immediately sent to race HQ. At the same time, Peyron was only three hours from his friend.  The wind eased off and shifted slightly.  The sailor from La Baule was able to accelerate. At 11h, he caught sight of Philou.  The two men were able to talk on the VHF. They decided they would try to right Fleury Michon.  There was no time to lose, as the forecast was for rougher weather and more gales.

Righting the boat
By dragging the boat into the wind, the two sailors thought they could manage it, but it was a daring manoeuvre.  Approaching a boat under sail in the heavy swell  to grab the anchor thrown by Philou presented many difficulties. «With the wind directly behind her, the mainsail trimmed, I approached, fearing that my keel or rudder would get caught in a halyard, ropes or ripped sail, which were floating around. Philou slid down to toss me a big rope.  I couldn't grab it…» said Loïck in his book «Course au Large».  He tried again from closer to the bow of the Briand designed boat.  This time the hawser went taut, Loïck thought he could hear the hull of Lada splitting open, as the bow of Fleury Michon began to slowly rotate, but remained flat in the water. The boat was kept down by her half-submerged rigging. «The idea of getting rid of the mizzen came to me, continued Loïck.  In my opinion, it was the only solution.  He agreed." Philou removed the mast from the back of his boat. Loïck got out his camera. It was a real show.  Once again being pulled along, but this time without her load, Fleury Michon gradually came back up. «It was really something seeing the monster awake and rise. The main mast was now vertical, and we could see her torn sails hanging down everywhere.»  A few hours later, the two sailors went their own way. Loïck continued his race eastwards, while Philou headed slowly for Cape Town. The pictures of this dramatic rescue were shown around the world.

Patrice Carpentier

 

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