Vendée skipper rescued by rival
French solo skipper Kevin Escoffier has said he had no doubt that he’d be rescued after his IMOCA 60 PRB broke in two during the Vendée Globe. The 40-year-old, who’d been in third place in the round the world yacht race, had just minutes to put on his survival suit and abandon ship before PRB sank around 840 miles south-west of Cape Town.
“It’s surreal what happened. The boat pulled back on itself in a wave at 27 knots. I heard a crack... I looked at the bow, it was at 90°.
“Within seconds, there was water everywhere. The stern of the boat was underwater and the bow pointed skyward. The boat broke in two forward of the mast bulkhead... I’m not exaggerating... there was a 90° angle between the stern and the bow of the boat. I didn’t have time to do anything. I was just able to send a message to my team, “I’m sinking. This is not a joke. MAYDAY,” he explained.
Fellow competitor Jean Le Cam, 61, was diverted to assist, initially finding Escoffier in his liferaft, but 5m seas and 20-25 knot winds meant he was unable initially to retrieve him. As the light faded, Le Cam lost sight of Escoffier, and three other Vendée Globe skippers – Yannick Bestaven, Boris Herrmann and Sebastien 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.
Escoffier spent 11 hours in his liferaft, most of it in the dark, before he was found and rescued by Le Cam at 0118 (UTC) on 1 December. 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.
Le Cam passed him a line in 3.5m waves and he managed to pull himself towards Le Cam’s boat, Yes We Cam!, hold onto the rudder link arm and climb on board.
Six days later, Escoffier was transferred to the French Navy frigate, Nivôse. Time compensations for the skippers involved in the rescue have been granted by the race’s International Jury.
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. During the rescue, PRB’s mast was damaged, which ended Riou’s Vendée Globe challenge; he was eventually awarded third place by organisers.
Of the four British skippers in the 2020 race, favourite Alex Thomson and Sam Davies have both been forced to retire due to damage to their boats.