Opposite: a South African Navy C-130 reaches Fleury Michon X, to be met with the extraordinary sight of a 60ft racing yacht floating on its side in the Southern Ocean apparently in perfect equilibrium. Ironically, as it turned out, Philippe Poupon had invited Loïck Peyron and Florence Arthaud (left) to the christening of his new Vendée Globe yacht. Peyron’s race runner-up Lada Poch (below) and Poupon’s elegant Philippe Briand design seen sailing in happier times (bottom)
the sloop configuration with a ketch rig. But it makes the boat quite a bit heavier than originally. And for the Vendée Globe a lot of extra electronic and electrical equipment, and all the wiring that comes with it, have been added to the original displacement. The result is Fleury Michon X loses stability to a point that she is unable to come back upright when laid on her side by a roaring wave.
It takes quite a while for Philou to unscrew the mizzen turnbuckles one by one. Slowly the mizzen mast starts to fall away and then plunges into the water and is dragged to the stern of the boat. Philou’s vessel gradually stands upright. The top of the main mast emerges from the water. A torn mainsail appears. Philou clings to his boat which is now coming up quickly. Loïck raises his fist in the air. The skipper of Lada Poch has activated his camera and the footage of that extraordi- nary salvage in the middle of the ocean will soon be seen across the world.
‘Thinking back about what happened, I now think Philou could have righted his boat by himself. The only thing I bring to him is probably moral support,’ writes Loïck in his own book, Course au Large. ‘Modest as usual, Philou gently thanks me. Without adding any words, I remain close to him during the next five or six hours while he begins his housework. My presence is not essential any more for him.’ Fellow competitors Jean-Luc Van Den Heede and Pierre Follenfant relayed the latest information by SSB to race HQ. After some hesitation Philou eventually decides to head for Cape Town where the boat will later be loaded onto a freighter. This is the first retirement of the Vendée Globe, but what a story!
fear that my keel or my rudder may get caught in the rope or in the many scraps of sails that float everywhere around us. ‘Philou slides down the deck of his boat like on a toboggan to throw me a big rope, but I fail to catch it…’ He goes around once again, this time sailing as close as he dares to the bow of Fleury Michon, but again Loïck fails to get hold of the rope. Philou has an idea. He climbs back down inside his boat and makes up a heaving line, much easier for Loïck to catch than the big rope. It works, this time Loïck does grab it and quickly puts it around the nearest winch. He then sails directly in front of the Briand design and gybes, allowing the boat to round up a little. Then he activates his
autopilot and frees the mainsheet a little before rushing to gybe the runners. Sud- denly the tow rope stiffens violently. Loïck hears a big noise coming from his deck just as if it is cracking under the huge tension… Slowly, very slowly, the hull of Fleury Michon X rotates but remains flat on the side. The two sailors talk again on the VHF. Now the only possibility looks to be to get the heavy mizzen mast out of Philou’s capsized boat… Originally Fleury Michon X was designed with a sloop rig. But, because the original sailplan only required quite a short boom, and with good experience of the ketch rig (especially racing on Pen Duick VI with Eric Tabarly), Philippe Poupon decides after a while to replace
Loïck goes on with the race and will finish in second place behind Lamazou. Soon he will join the race winner in an extraordinary ticker-tape parade down the Champs Elysée. The crowd is enormous. Ironically Loïck’s boat is the previous 60-footer of Titouan (Ecureuil d’Aquitaine I). Philou will be at the start of Vendée Globe no2 on the same Fleury Michon, now modified but still under a ketch rig. Unfortunately, the mizzen mast will break (an accident…) a few days before the finish while he fights for second place against Jean-Luc Van Den Heede. Fleury Michon X and Lada Poch III will both sail again in the Vendée Globe under new skippers and with different names. The Vendée Globe is a special adventure.
q SEAHORSE 31
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