Sailor of the Decade
The sailing world has praised veteran Vendée Globe skipper Jean Le Cam after his dramatic rescue of fellow competitor Kevin Escoffier whose IMOCA 60, PRB broke in two during the race. The 40-year-old, who had been lying in third place, had just minutes to abandon ship in 16ft waves before PRB sank around 840 miles south-west of Cape Town.
‘You know those images of shipwrecks? It was like that, but worse,’ explained Escoffier. ‘In four seconds the boat nosedived, the bow folded at 90°. I put my head down in the cockpit, a wave was coming. I had time to send one text [Mayday] before the wave fried the electronics. It was completely crazy. It folded the boat in two [forward of the mast bulkhead].’
Le Cam, 61, was diverted to assist, initially finding Escoffier in his liferaft; 16ft seas and 20-25 knot winds meant he was unable to retrieve him. As the light faded, Le Cam lost sight of Escoffier, and three other Vendée Globe skippers – Yannick Bestaven, Boris Herrmann and Sébastien Simon – joined the search, short-tacking their boats while following a triangular search pattern. They were assisted by France’s national meteorological service, Météo-france, which calculated drift patterns based on Escoffier’s EPIRB data.
After 11 hours in his liferaft, Escoffier was eventually found by Le Cam, who passed him a line. Escoffier then held onto the rudder link arm of Yes We Cam! and stepped onboard the
IMOCA 60 at 0118hrs (UTC) on 1 December 2020. He said he never doubted he would be rescued. ‘As soon as I had seen Jean I was sure I would be saved,’ he said.
Six days later, Escoffier was transferred to the French Navy frigate, Nivôse, and was taken to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Time compensations have been granted by the race’s jury to all of the skippers involved in Escoffier’s rescue.
During the 2008-09 Vendée Globe, Le Cam was rescued by the then skipper of PRB, Vincent Riou, after his IMOCA 60 capsized 200 miles west of Cape Horn. Le Cam was trapped inside his upturned VM Materiaux for 16 hours before Riou was able to reach him. During the rescue, PRB’S mast was damaged, which ended Riou’s Vendée Globe challenge; although he was eventually awarded third place by organisers.
2004-2005 Vendée Globe skipper Conrad Humphreys, who has been presenting Vendée updates on his Youtube Channel (www. yachtingmonthly.com/ conradhumphreys) closely followed the rescue, and praised Le Cam.
‘Spotting a tiny liferaft in 5m seas and 30 knots of wind is not easy, but Le Cam used his immense experience to drift along the predicted track at night hoping to spot Kevin’s tiny light. The fact that he spotted him, in these conditions was amazing [...] What seamanship! What a bloody hero!’ added Humphreys.
Of the four British skippers in the 2020 race, favourite Alex Thomson and Sam Davies have been forced to retire due to boat damage. Davies plans to repair her IMOCA 60, Initiatives Coeur in Cape Town before completing her circumnavigation. As YM went to press, Pip Hare and Miranda Merron were making good progress across the Indian Ocean.
Pete Goss, who was invested in the Legion d’honneur for saving fellow sailor Raphaël Dinelli in the 1996-97 Vendée Globe race, having sailed back into hurricane-force winds in the Southern Ocean to rescue the French skipper, gives his analysis of Escoffier’s rescue on Pages 46-51.