Alex Thomson aka St Bernard

Sill's new owner helps damsel in distress

Over this last weekend, 29yr old Alex Thomson, the new owner and skipper of top Open 60 racing yacht Sill, embarked upon his 1,000 mile qualifying sail with French co-skipper, Roland Jourdain, in order to compete in the classic double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre race starting on 1 November from Le Havre, France. However, their test sail out at sea became a real mission of mercy and the two skippers turned into 'Saint Bernards of the Sea'.

Late last Friday evening, Jourdain and Thomson were sailing in 30 knots of wind and quite rough seas when they received an emergency call to go to the assistance of a young Frenchwoman, Maud Fontenoy, who was in a small craft rowing single-handedly across the Atlantic from America. She was located approximately 300 miles off Ushant, Western France, and had had her fresh water supply drastically cut off after the only two water-making devices on board had broken down and her emergency supplies were down to just 7 litres.

Midday on Saturday, which was Fontenoy's 100th day alone at sea rowing, Jourdain and Thomson finally located the craft in heavy seas and strong winds after covering 200 miles. Alex explained the mission they then accomplished: "Thankfully her satellite phone worked so we could pin-point her location as the boat was so small and white, we only spotted it right at the last moment. We prepared two containers, one with 20 litres of water bottles, and another with fresh and tinned food. Then I tied a 40m length of rope to the containers and fed it out over the side as Bilou steered Sill at slow speed alongside the rowing boat. The moment she grabbed hold of the rope was an incredible relief!"

With enough fresh water onboard, Fontenoy's moral was boosted considerably, thanks to the two 'Saint Bernards' of the Sea. Maud Fontenoy is still 290 miles from her finish line off Ushant, and facing 40 knot winds and 5 metre waves as she battles to complete her incredible voyage.

For the first offshore sail on his new Open 60, Thomson found it quite an experience: "The conditions were strong, and we could get Sill surfing at 25 knots boatspeed easily - she is an incredibly quick boat! It's still hard to feel that she is my boat yet, but Bilou and I got along very well and soon he left me for 6 hours or so at a time, and I was totally self-sufficient, and really enjoyed sailing her by myself. And then to find this tiny rowing boat and a young girl who's been on her own for 100 days at sea was unbelievable - I thought my own ambition to sail single-handedly around the world in the Vendée Globe was crazy enough! At least it only took us about 24hrs to sail the 350 miles back to port."