Christian Fevrier comments...

Further thoughts from France's top yachting photo-journalist on the Greenpeace-Le Defi incident

Since their attack on Le Defi on Saturday, Greenpeace has tried to play 'not guilty' in the French media.

After the incident in Lorient, a spokesman from Greenpeace claimed: "Our Zodiac was harpooned by another inflatable boat from Le Defi which acted like a coastguard. In this manoeuvre, our boat hit the hull of Areva.". And today, in the French newspaper Liberation, Bruno Rebelle, General Director of Greenpeace, tells another lie. He writes: " This incident is due to the brutality of the Areva crew".

Prior to the incident Greenpeace claimed their intention was to get on to the pontoon not far from the Areva ACC yacht and erect a Greenpeace flag in protest. However at the time the boat was under the crane ready to be hoisted.

For the christening ceremony on Friday night and the proposed first sailing on the Saturday, the authorities had imposed a 'no-go' zone for all boats off the Le Defi Areva compound. The Greenpeace boats ignored this no-go zone and entered it with kayaks, dinghies and RIBs.

The maritime marshalls had been not aggressive at all on Friday evening for the christening and in the morning of Saturday, when Areva was supposed to have her first sail and participate in a parade down Lorient harbour in the company of many thousand yachtsmen. There was no Marine Commandos from the French Navy present on the water. Greenpeace had promised a "passive protest" to the Lorient officials.

At the time of the incident, more than 100 journalists were watching the dock from approximately 150 meters away. What we saw was a Greenpeace RIB, with four men on board, playing a game of cat and mouse for a few minutes with the coastguards' RIB. At the time they were 30 metres from Areva. Suddenly, after a tight fast turn, the Greenpeace boat escaped the marshalls and headed at full speed directly to the Areva yacht, hitting her bow-on. Happily, they had a rubber boat. If it had been a solid boat, the impact would certainly have made a big hole in the topsides.

If, as Greenpeace claims, their intention was to get onto the pontoon, their due course should have been 50 to 60 degrees more to the right. The pontoon is long enough to have two ACC yachts moored up to it. So, I refute this poor argument.

On Saturday evening a member of the Greenpeace board in Paris admitted privately that "their communication had been wrong in Lorient". This was backed up by the fact that on Saturday there was a second RIB on which a Greenpeace cameraman and photographer captured the incident. Normally this material would have promptly appeared on the Greenpeace website in France, but so far they have not.

Personally I find this incident deeply disappointing. Like many sailors all around the world, I have supported Greepeace for their many courageous actions to protect the environment that will be our children's legacy. But to damage a yacht in this way cannot be good for the Greenpeace cause.

Christian Fevrier