Vendée Globe

The first few days of 1997 were marked by a series of boats being lost in the Indian Ocean. It was a miracle but all three sailors were rescued. As the organizers at Race HQ in Paris were relieved to hear of the rescue of Thierry Dubois and Tony Bullimore, found by the Australian rescue teams inside his carbon boat, the Argos data sent out at 00.25 on Wednesday 8th January noted the lack of signal from Groupe LG 2 skippered by Gerry Roufs.

On the previous day, the sailor from Quebec was in second place in this third edition of the Vendée Globe, 1500 miles behind the leader, Christophe Auguin, and a few hundred miles ahead of a tight group including Marc Thiercelin, Hervé Laurent and Bertrand de Broc. Groupe LG 2 was sailing in the South Pacific on the 55th Parallel, more or less halfway between New Zealand and Cape Horn. In his final telex sent by satellite, Gerry, who had already been shaken up the previous week, had reported horrible conditions: «The waves are no longer waves, but mountains like the Alps.»

The lack of data from the Argos system was in itself not cause for immediate alarm, except the boat did not reappear in the subsequent poll either. The Race Directors attempted to contact the sailor but to no avail. Groupe LG 2 had vanished from the screens and given the strength of the storm in the area, the directors were naturally worried, particularly as icebergs had been spotted in the zone. This was what the cargo vessel, Mass Entreprise told them after she was diverted by the maritime rescue co-ordination centre. The area where Groupe LG 2 was sailing was not in a rescue zone and that is why the French co-ordination centre took control. It was a difficult affair for several reasons. The location was too far from land to make a reconnaissance flight by a plane, and it was also well away from shipping lanes. Action had to be taken quickly, as the sailor was considered to be in a distress situation, although he had not triggered his distress beacon, as the final position dated back to 7th January.

Due to the lack of information, every possible scenario was imagined. Maybe the boat had lost power and therefore communication. Although the Argos beacon was a separate entity from the boat, it may have been affected by a knock down in the horrendous conditions. Gerry would have continued on his way as best he could. It was more likely that the boat had capsized, which would explain the lack of signal from the beacon on the stern of the boat.
If that was the case, maybe Gerry was unconscious aboard his boat and unable to trigger the Sarsat distress beacon, or maybe he was on his life raft without a beacon – his boat could have hit an iceberg and threatening to sink – or the Canadian could have been thrown out into the water, when she capsized. Although the most likely cause, they refused to accept this possibility.

In the absence of concrete evidence, there was still hope. The boats in the area were diverted to search the area. This was a dangerous task as the seas were heavy and any hope of finding the boat was remote. As time went by, gloom settled over the Pacific. An Indian cargo vessel sailing from Australia to Argentina joined in the search, but in vain. The Canadian Space Agency offered to explore the area using satellite radar,

«Everything will be done to try to find Gerry Roufs,» repeated Philippe Jeantot then in charge of the Vendée Globe. The complexity of the search meant any hope remained minute.

Epilogue
On 17th January, some great news: a Chilean reconnaissance flight patrolling the area around the Horn picked up a message from Groupe LG, Lima Golf on VHF Channel 16. According to a press release from the Etel maritime coordination centre in Brittany, there was just enough time to signal the position to the NW of the cape, but neither the plane nor the helicopter that was dispatched, were able to spot the boat. Doubts were raised about the validity of the Chilean statement. On 22nd January, the search and rescue operation was called off and on 25th we learnt that the commander in chief of the Chilean 3rd Zone based in Punta Arenas denied the information that had been published saying that one of his pilots had picked up the VHF message.

Six months later, on 16th July 1997, an overturned hull with a keel, bulb and two rudders was spotted by a Panamanian cargo vessel. The hull was drifting 300 miles west of the coast of South America.

A Chilean spotter plane flew over the next day. The boat was formally identified – with photographic evidence – that this was Groupe LG 2. On 19th July, a boat reached the zone, but after four days of bad weather, the search was called off.

On 1st of September, some members of the “On the trail of Gerry Roufs” Association set up by Gerry’s partner headed for the area.

A year later, debris from the boat was washed up on Atayala Island to the south of Chile.
 

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