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20.09.2008
The skipper of SIRMA, Christophe Bouvet, rescued from the water
News in brief: Early last night on Friday 19th September at around 2000
hours, Race Management was alerted by Matthieu Girolet, skipper of
Entreprendre Lafont Presse, that there didn’t seem to be any sign of life
aboard the boat SIRMA. Christian Gout and his men immediately tried to
contact Christophe Bouvet but to no avail… A rescue party was rapidly put
together and the closest competitors were diverted. Little by little the
whole fleet was searching for Christophe. This solidarity paid off in the
end since Christophe Bouvet was recuperated two hours later by Paul Meilhat.
Stage 2 Cagliari (Sardinia) / Marzamémi (Sicily) has been rendered null and
void and its start moved forward to later in the day. The time of the next
start will be set at 1400 hours following the competitors briefing.
In detail:
Man overboard
You must always respect the philosopher Pascal’s wager, which said that even
though there’s a chance in a million of success, you have to attempt this
chance. Christophe Bouvet, fell overboard in a particularly violent squall,
and was fished out a little more than two hours later by Paul Meilhat, one
of the race competitors who was diverted to go in search of him. The rescue
came about thanks to a fine chain of solidarity.
“Race Management from Entreprendre Laffont Presse”, the voice of Mathieu
Girolet has real note of concern in it. The fleet, which was hurtling along
nicely under spinnaker, was suddenly hit by a nasty squall with peaks of
over 45 knots of wind. Mathieu had just passed alongside SIRMA, Christophe
Bouvet’s boat. The yacht was all over the place and there was no sign of
life aboard. Immediately Christian Goût tried to contact Christophe, without
response… Even though nobody wanted to say it, there wasn’t a second to
lose. The closest boats were immediately diverted towards the position of
Christophe’s boat. Jeanne Grégoire, Gildas Mahé, Mathieu Girolet, Paul
Meilhat headed towards the position of Sirma, identified by its VHF. The
emergency services were alerted and the Cagliari coastguards began to set a
distress plan in motion.
The fleet became one
Faced with the gravity of the situation, the racers spontaneously decided,
one after the other, to retire from the race and make headway under motor
towards Christophe’s position. Mathieu Girolet who was first to get there
confirmed the news; the boat was drifting with all sails aloft and nobody on
deck. Night fell and everyone converged on the zone. Whilst the first boats
in the area began their search upwind of Sirma’s position, race management
arrived on site. Philippe Chapel boarded the catamaran’s tender and climbed
aboard Christophe’s boat. There was nobody there. Gérald Véniard, boosted by
his perfect control of the navigation tools, took the initiative: we can
reconstitute the memory of Christophe’s course on Sirma’s tracker. With
advice from Gildas Mahé who had reindexed close by, Philippe Chapel was then
quickly able to give the estimated position of Christophe’s fall to the
whole fleet via VHF. The wait is interminable. In their new roles as
rescuers the competitors travel the length and breadth of the zone, turning
on their lights in the ink black night. At the request of race management,
several distress flairs are fired to light up the zone and indicate to
Christophe that there is a search underway. Despite their concern, the
racers stay calm. The minutes tick by. It’s already been two hours since the
search began when Paul Meilhat announces on the VHF that he has just picked
up Christophe Bouvet. Christophe is fine and completely lucid. With the race
having been rendered null and void, they won’t set off again just yet. The
competitors return to Cagliari… The meeting of the fleet promises to be a
good one. Tomorrow is another day.
Interview de Christian Gout, race director, goes over the facts:
"At around 2000 hrs, we received a VHF call from the skipper Matthieu
Girolet announcing that he had just passed the boat SIRMA which was broached
in the water, spinnaker feathered and nobody on deck. At that point, there
was a strong wind due to a stormy squall. We immediately called the skipper
of SIRMA, Christophe BOUVET, on the VHF.
Without response from him there were two possibilities: either he was aboard
incapable of answering our call, or he had gone overboard. Aboard the Race
Management boat, we immediately diverted our course despite the bad weather,
in a bid to make towards the boat, whose position we had thanks to its VHF
Icom.
At the same time we asked three competitors, who were located within a 3
mile (6 km) radius of it, to do the same. At night in the breeze, they
immediately acknowledged their presence and set about turning back, into the
wind.
We positioned ourselves upwind of the boat’s estimated position at the
moment of the accident as a boat drifts quicker than a man in the water. We
had to be fast as the survival time of a man overboard is short.
Less than two hours later, Paul Meilhat, one of the diverted competitors,
found Christophe who was floating despite his foulies. Despite big seas he
managed to pull him aboard prior to transferring him to an Italian Guardia
launch which was patrolling with us. It was fortunate that the accident
occurred in the Mediterranean where the water is warm. In the Atlantic it
would have been a different story. Everyone did their job, and reacted well
without panicking. It was a good experience as Christophe is with us today.
We’ll have to take lessons from this whilst it’s fresh in our minds.
Christophe is in shock but in good health. He’s tough.
The race has been rendered null and void. The 29 competitors in the Cap
Istanbul are alongside in Cagliari. We have a briefing at 1300 hours today.
According to the psychological state of the competitors and also the
material because, in their urgency, some sails were ripped, we will make a
decision about the new date of the departure for Marzamemi in due course".
www.capistanbul.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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