Violent pitchpole

Yves le Blevec and Jean le Cam give their account of last night's capsize of Actual

Since her capsize last night in the early hours of the Transat Jacques Vabre, Yves le Blevec and Jean le Cam's Multi50 trimaran Actual has been towed to Cherbourg with its mast intact thanks to the Goury lifeboat crew and ocean racer Halvard Mabire, who lives nearby and assisted in the salvage.

According to le Blevec at the time of their pitchpole they were sailing at 20 knots in 20-25 knots of wind when at 18:45 French time last night she abruptly pitchpoled. At the time le Blevec was on the helm and le Cam was in the cockpit. The boat stopped abruptly, the pitchpole occurring in just seconds. Le Blevec fell into the water from his position in the cockpit while the experienced le Cam dived down below.

"I felt reassured to find myself in the water," recounted le Blevec. "But then I had a new moment of fright when I saw the boat falling on top of me. I said to myself that the situation was about to become critical. The boat came down quickly, not in a friendly way because the netting was above me. By a miracle the boat moved and I was able to get up on to the boat without being imprisoned, so I wasn't in the water for a very long time. At that time Jean was inside but did not know where I was. When I got up onto the boat I called "Jean" and he answered me. We called each other because we were both worried about each other. Quickly we opened the escape hatch which enabled us to communicate. We knew we had to avoid a further accident because we were not far from the traffic separation scheme as well as the trajectory of other competitors. Very quickly Jean put on his TPS survival suit and got on to the hull with flashlights and a VHF radio. We didn't want to start getting help from everyone, but simply to avoid being a danger to other boats.”

Le Cam marked out the perimeter of the boat with flashlights. They didn't set off their EPIRB so no Mayday was issued.

Meanwhile the CROSS (coastguard) in Jobourg immediately issued a notice to shipping warning of their position.



Le Cam, who has been involved in numerous multihull capsizes in the past, including famously one mid-Atlantic with Eric Tabarly during a two handed race, said that he'd never experienced such a brutal capsize, the whole incident occuring in just three or four seconds. He said the sea state off the north of the Cherbourg peninsula was "usual" in 25 knots of northeasterly wind. It had been like hitting the front brakes on a bicycle, causing the stern to overtake the bow.

At the time Le Cam said he didn't even have time to take a breath, but he was concerned for le Blevec who might get caught under the netting. "Yves did not know where I was and I did not know where he was."

Le Cam paid tribute to the rescue services who once they had arrived on the scene at 22:00 local time last night, sent a RIB from their lifeboat to Actual and, despite the sea state, put two men on board to help fix the tow rope. "This was not easy to do but they were very professional. They are really experienced people."

He and le Blevec remained on board during the tow which was at a ginger 2.5 knots. They stopped outside of Cherbourg because the mast was still attached causing them to draw 23m! With the help of the SNSM divers, they managed to detach the mast which before the start they were complaining was heavy, but had remaining in one piece during the pitchpole and the subsequent tow - upside down in the water for 12 hours. During this le Blevec injured his hand and was forced to leave the salvage to le Cam as taken ashore at 10:30 this morning.

“The Goury SNSM was brilliant, super professional," said le Blevec later. "Halvard Mabire was also the right man for the job, I trust him completely. He managed the situation extremely well with Jacky Huteau of the port, in order to find the people and the means necessary to find shelter for the boat and the mast.” Ironically Mabire's Open 60 Cherbourg Technologies capsized exactly 15 years ago to the day in the Route du Rhum, but her fate was not so fortunate.

As to the cause of the capsize, le Blevec and le Cam don't have any answers. "Perhaps ran into an unidentified object," pondered le Blevec later. "We will have to step back and analyse the incident and the breakage with the designer Guillaume Verdier and the builder, Nicolas Groleau." However the photos of the incident clearly show that the bow has been virtually bludgeoned to port.

The Actual Team expressed their profound thank to the Jobourg coastguard and the SNSM rescue service from Goury for their professionalism, as well as the Yacht Club of Cherbourg, the port of Chantereyne for their reception and Halvard Mabire for his effectiveness.