Kevin Escoffier
High drama on the high seas. Kevin Escoffier was in third place in the Vendee Globe Race, sailing in the “Roaring Forties” about 840 miles south of Cape Town, when his boat PRB broke in half. He sent a brief message to his team at 1346hrs (UTC), saying: “I need assistance. I am sinking. This is not a joke.” He had just enough time to activate his EPIRB, don a neoprene survival suit, and to get to his liferaft before the boat sank beneath him.
Rescue services, including the MRCC Cape Town and French CROSS Griz, working with the PRB team and Vendée Globe race organizers, requested Jean Le Cam, the nearest competitor, in the boat Yes We Cam!, to sail to PRB’s last known position when the beacon was triggered.
When Le Cam arrived at the position (40°55 S 9°18 E) he initially spotted Escoffier’s life raft but then lost sight of it in the 5-meter seas and 20-25 knot winds. Yachting World reports: While Le Cam began initiating a search pattern, race organizers requested that three more Vendée Globe competitors – Boris Herrmann, Yannick Bestaven, and Sebastien Simon – divert to PRB’s last known position. By this stage, it was dark, with 3-5m waves, and blowing 22-25 knots.
The four searching skippers were given a grid search area using drift positions calculated by Météo France, and began sailing the area – no easy task to be short-tacking an IMOCA in heavy seas whilst maintaining a search lookout.
Finally, Le Cam spotted Escoffier’s light in the water and was able to bring him aboard his boat at 0118 hrs (UTC).
Yachting World also notes a historical parallel: This amazing rescue is a fairy tale ending to a story that began during the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe when Vincent Riou, the then the skipper of PRB, rescued Jean Le Cam from his upturned IMOCA 60 200 miles west of Cape Horn. Le Cam was trapped inside his upturned VM Materiaux for 16 hours before Riou was able to reach his position, shout to him, and recover him from the capsized yacht, ending his own Vendée Globe challenge in the process.
Onboard video – Rescue of Kevin ESCOFFIER (PRB) by Jean LE CAM | YES WE CAM!
Thanks to David Rye for contributing to this post.
There is something inherently wrong with the design of these boats, this is the second one to suffer from structural failure and they are not even in the dangerous waters beyond Cape of Good Hope. I hope they black flag the race and send all those who have not yet passed the Cape into Capetown whilst there is an analysis of the stresses on the forward areas otherwise it is possible that there will be an avoidable tragedy.
Time will tell if the rest of the foiling fleet holds together during the race. Hugo Boss was a newer boat with obvious structural issues. PRB was relatively old, at 11 years and was not built as a foiler. SHe was retro-fitted with foils in 2017. It seems likely that the addition of foils may have weakened the overall hull structure.
Looking at the designs online. A sailboat is designed so that the bow is supported by the water it floats in. If anything the designs show a lack of frames that are normally in the construction. IE the builders have removed much of the framework. Where the prints of a normal sailboat have frames every 2 feet. These supposed yachts are one frame for every 6 to 8 feet apart. No diagonal bracing between the frames to help take up the stresses. Like they expect the outside skin to take up what is missing.
Fracture mechanics of carbon are pretty unforgiving.
This is an engineering trade. Weight reduction is purchased in trade for tolerance to ordinary real world events, such as deep scratches.
Maybe a little too much tolerance has been traded away. The number of mysterious failures or insults that might normally be shrugged off leading to complete failure is pretty striking.
Regardless of the above, this was an awesome piece of seamanship by le Cam.
It seems that nautical architects, engineers and boat-builders are at the de Havilland Comet airliner stage of development.
Seventy years on and nothing learned from history about protecting the lives of people by proper testing.
Le Cam did a great job, as did Escoffier. In a matter of minutes, Escoffier sent off a text message, activated his EPIRB, donned a survival suit (which can take some doing), and got into a liferaft as the PRB was sinking under him. Everyone involved in the rescue performed extremely well.
There is obviously much that is not understood about the mechanics of carbon fiber laminate failure. Hugo Boss suffered keel damage last year in the Transat Jacques Vabre. The hull was extensively inspected and Non-Destructively Tested and was found to be undamaged. Nevertheless, the bow began to fracture early in the race. Was it something that the NDT missed or just inadequate scantlings?
Likewise, did the PRB break in half in way of the new foils installed a few years ago? It would be very interesting to have answers to these and related questions.
And now Sebastien Simon’s boat Arkea Paprec and Samantha Davies’ Initiatives Coeur
have both hit unidentified objects. Both are heading north out of the severe weather. Arkea Paprec is taking on water so I don’t imagine it will finish the race.
I thought following the race was going to be a relief from all the political stupidity that is in the news but it is causing me even more stress and worry.
There must be a hell of a lot of flotsam an Jetsam out there. Or maybe the strange noise foiling boats make is attracting curious wildlife to investigate and get in the way.
There is certainly going to be even more pollution with all the wreckage these boats are leaving in their wake.
This is a high risk activity. The risks are accepted by the participants as a concomitant of glory or self fulfilment. The risks in any circumnavigation have always been there, from Magellan to Slocum to Knox Jonston. Then the risks were even greater than now. No weather info, no electronic nav. gear, self steering by string and bits of wood, no hope of rescue by any means. To go round at any winning speed today is like the early days of any sort of flight. First to leave the ground, to cross the English Channel, the Atlantic, to fly a jet, etc. etc. No doubt we will all benefit from the new materials these courageous sailors are pioneering. When it`s all safe and proven, racers will be risking their lives on the next things.