A different Normandy Channel Race. Previous races saw finishing margins measured in seconds but in 2025 a combination of design progress and rough weather meant that while this year’s top five were covered by a respectable 6h, the 16th and last finisher crossed the line 2d 6h after winners Corentin Douget and Axel Tréhin. With the last 50 Class40s all scows and notable advances within scow design during the last two years, the gaps in the fleet are widening. The oldest boat in the top five was No196, a Mach 40.5 launched at the end of 2023. No168 (left) is a first-generation scow from 2021 designed by Etienne Bertrand – she finished 12th and 1d 20h after the first boat home. Meanwhile, first ‘pointy-boat’ to finish was Maxime Bouchier and Thibaut Lefevere (above) on a Sabrosa 40 from 2014, a further six hours behind. But the Class40 is managed exceptionally well and plans to resolve the divide are already advanced
and then realised the other half of the boat was floating next to us, but pointing in the other direction and moving about like a toy. ‘There’s no way we could get to it without having to dive into the
water. It became critical that we quickly activate the liferaft. On the Pogo 40S4 there is an open space for storing the liferaft on the back of the hull. It’s easy to get to, but once we threw it in the water it didn’t inflate (the gas bottle was not connected to the trigger- float, Thomas later explained). I informed Pamela, who decided to launch her own liferaft and let it out towards us. ‘Her raft inflated correctly but the attachment ripped off the tubes
and the raft immediately drifted away from us both… A big problem because the sea was too rough for Pamela and Jay to consider taking us off directly at night. ‘However, they had listened to our radio exchanges with Ital
Bonny before and couldn’t believe the aggression of the ship’s mate. Personally, I wonder whether he was in his right mind at the time… his words were so astonishing.’ About an hour later an H160 helicopter from the French Navy
flew over the area. The crew hoisted the two men out of the water: Thomas was cold but unharmed, while Cédric was complaining of back pain. A subsequent examination revealed four broken ribs. ‘In circumstances like these you’re really pleased to have been well briefed before the start of the race by lifeguards who preach the good word and, above all, really emphasise the right hand signals to use.’ ‘What’s more,’ adds Cédric, ‘as fate would have it, I was in
Nouméa eight days beforehand with a client, the manager of the Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer (SNSM). On the agenda
were helicopter winching exercises. We completed dozens of these training exercises! Needless to say, I was well-prepared for this unexpected exercise a week later…’ As a specialist in rescuing racing yachts in distress, navigator
Adrien Hardy went to the scene aboard Oceanic Assistance, a 35m power trimaran designed and built initially for a round-the-world record, then later operated by Sea Shepherd. The speed and long range of this Lorient-based boat make it ideal for a wide range of missions, often including rescue, and sometimes far offshore. It is well-known in the ocean racing community. In this case, Adrien, who had himself earlier retired from the CIC
Normandy Channel Race, arrived on the scene with his team the morning after the accident. They first had to separate the mast and rigging from the broken hull. Then they towed the two halves of the boat slowly back to Lorient (the operation took 24 hours). Cédric: ‘We soon learned that the container ship had switched
off its AIS transponders immediately after colliding with us so as not to be spotted, and that it didn’t switch them back on until the following morning after receiving orders from the Maritime Authority to stop and head into Saint-Nazaire. ‘There the captain and first officer were both interviewed. Accord-
ing to the French Gendarmerie, they were relatively co-operative. However, contradictions soon appeared between the statements of the chief officer, who was on watch at the time of the accident, and those of the captain, who was in his bunk.’ Forty-eight hours later the container ship resumed its journey for her final destination in Greece. Cédric, who is also a lawyer, declared: ‘We have lodged several
SEAHORSE 19
JEAN-MARIE LIOT
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