Trimaran crews safe

This afternoon's position reports also show Skandia to have taken fourth place from Bonduelle in the Transat Jacques Vabre

Since our last update, the crew from both Foncia and Orange have been winched to safety and taken to the 182m French helicopter cruiser Jeanne d'Arc where they have been receiving medical attention, in particular Foncia's Irish crewman, Damien Foxall. By 1500GMT all crew were safely on board. Once they have been deemed to be alright, the crew will be airlifted by helicopter back to Brest. It is still too rough for any tow to be effected on either trimaran at this moment.

Following the breakage of Sodebo's port float and subsequent dismasting skipper Thomas Coville has now spoken about the incident, which took place in the early hours of this morning while his trimaran was 150 miles due west of Brest in 35-45 knot winds.

“The seas were immense. We were around the edge of the continental shelf when the wind rose to its highest point. A huge wave suddenly slammed violently into the boat and the port float broke in two right in the middle. We furled the headsail and took down the mainsail immediately and fought to keep the boat facing downwind, to be less exposed. But the mast fell down, breaking the beam and smashing on the leeward float. The fishing boat which is towing us right now was actually really close, on stand-by. So when this happened they came alongside us very quickly.”

The latest positions from those still racing shows that Groupama 2 is still ahead of Banque Populaire by 20 miles.

However it has been all-change in the Open 60 class where as the boats pass Cape Finistere Ellen and Roland Jourdain's Sill et Veolia have been overtaken by the 2003 TJV winner Virbac-Paprec who have gained by being first to pick up the wind shift to the northwest. Brian Thompson and Will Oxley on Skandia have made similar gains by the tactic and as a result have overhauled Jean le Cam and Kito de Pavant on Bonduelle. With the wind now into the northwest, the Open 60s are fully up to cruising speed and are recording instantaneous speeds of 18-19 knots - the same as the multihulls at present.

Will Oxley sent us the following complete with heavy weather keyboard typos...:

Ocean racing can be HARD CORE very hard core. I was reminded of that last night in a big way. The bay of biscay last night turnrd it on for us...pitch black driving spray and occassional rain..6m waves and Skandia constantly dropping off waves. We drive with a crash helmet and spray visor. it is the only way we can seee anything. Working on the bow changing sails is like being in the dumper zone of the surf as you get rolled around whilst wrestling a sail to the deck. Hand signals with the deck light on are theonly way to communicate with Brian. I got soakked up to the waist as a huge wave surged up my legs. We had the timing of the front sorted with the wx models and our router and were both up and ready as we saw the front approach on the radar. At that stage we had 3 reefs in the main and a staysails so were able to do a quick tack after restacKING THE BOAT.

Why is my writing so b ad? becuase we are launchingoff enormous waves this timedownwin d! I have just come of watch from steeri ng post front and we have averaged about 20 knots!! Fantastic on tyh4e edge saiuling as we blast downwind!! One huge wave rushed downht e deck as ~I buryed the bow and absoluted wacked me.
MY automatic life jacket exploded in my face and there was a moment of panic as I thought the rig was coming down. They really make a banG.

So affter the trials of the first few days we are now blasting towards brazil..... bring it on. We were fastest boat in the fllet last sked. Cool!! Sleep for both of us has been brief snatches in our gear but now I am about to get into the bunk an d tryn and dry out.

Cheers,

Will.

PS: Terrible news about the multis. Our hearst go out to them and hope that everone gets out oif it ok.Brian and I raced around the world this year with Damian, thomas and Jaques and it has been a shock to both of us.





Among the Open 50 monohulls, Artforms reached Lorient after their mainsail ripped, in order to pick up their old mainsail. Skippers Kip Stone and Merf Owen are deliberating as to whether to continue racing. As a result Josh Hall and Joe Harris on Gryphon Solo now have a 51 mile lead on Vedettes de Bréhat as the boats still head west to escape the low pressure system.

More rescue photos on the following pages...