Vendee Globe and Alex Thomson / Hugo Boss

[Roberto]

Le Cam makes the actual rescue seem very easy which I doubt it was. Does anyone know what the 'transmission' is that he mentions in the video? Possibly a translation error or actually a thing?

"Barre de transmission", that carbon bar tied between the two rudders to move them simultaneously

 

[Frogmogman]

Many congratulations to Jean Le Cam for an outstanding piece of seamanship, and to the other boats that participated in the search. This morning's news was such a relief; I woke twice in the night thinking of Kevin Escoffier being tossed about in his life raft in the roaring forties.

On a lighter note, I was tickled buy one report that had obviously been google-translated into English, which had transformed "Le Cam avait trois ris dans sa grande voile" into "Le Cam had three laughs in his mainsail".

 

[john_morris_uk]

"Barre de transmission", that carbon bar tied between the two rudders to move them simultaneously

Thank you. That makes perfect sense.

 

[Sandy]

Raphael Dinelli? Champagne?


[EDIT]. After some googlong ......

"
Pete ....[Goss]....sent what may have been his last fax to his wife to explain what he was about to do and immediately turned round to rescue the Frenchman. He battled for two days to reach the near-dead Dinelli, who was extremely lucky to survive 48 hours in a freezing life raft.

Pete now became nurse to Dinelli, who suffered from hypothermia and was so stiff with cold he could not move for days. Pete made him sweet tea and gave him physiotherapy while he made his slow recovery. The pair became firm friends, vowing to sail together and toasting their future on New Year’s Eve with a bottle of champagne Dinelli had had the incredible foresight to bring aboard!

I'll need to apologise Ravi, I'm old, the VG is the only race I'm interested in and I considered the actions taken my Pete Goss as the bravest rescue in my lifetime. I should not have made the assumption that everybody knew the detail

 

[E39mad]

Jean He Came

I have decided to rename him.

Fantastic rescue and pleased all are safe.

Certainly concerning that the bow folded on PRB by 90 degrees!

 

[zoidberg]

The next big thing? Origami race boats.....

 

[Roberto]

Translating from LeCam-ese -he speaks a rather personal French- , the "banana" he talks about is the Silzig buoy, with which he made physical contact with the raft

 

[Frogmogman]

Translating from LeCam-ese -he speaks a rather personal French- , the "banana" he talks about is the Silzig buoy, with which he made physical contact with the raft

His speech is at least 50% slang, which can make it hard to understand.

What a man.

 

[flaming]

Sort of nice ironical symmetry in that it was Escoffier's boat (PRB), then skippered by Vincent Riou, who rescued Le Cam in the 2009 Vendee. Not the exact same hull I don't believe, but still.

We have to hope that the aftermath of this rescue is a little bit less acrimonious though...
PRB may sue for cost of rescue - Yachting World

"Ah, Mr PRB, how lucky to find you in this life raft, now before we begin the rescuing, please sign this waiver..."

 

[flaming]

Escoffier’s description of PRB folding 90 degs and sinking, sounds like another major structural failure. Not good news for other similar boats in the Southern Ocean !!

There aren't really any similar boats in the vendee... PRB was widely thought to be the lightest IMOCA ever built. And even still Kevin had added over 200kg of Carbon to beef it up.

It was on it's 3rd Vendee, and had retired from the last 2 in a very similar position to where it has now sunk....

 

[westhinder]

Jean Le Cam is in more ways than one the hero of this race so far. Respect!
But at this rate, what else will happen before they make it round to Les Sables d’Olonne?

 

[Frogmogman]

Sort of nice ironical symmetry in that it was Escoffier's boat (PRB), then skippered by Vincent Riou, who rescued Le Cam in the 2009 Vendee. Not the exact same hull I don't believe, but still.

There's clearly an echo on the forum (post#700)

 

[LONG_KEELER]

And so much better if you can be rescued by a fellow competitor in true corinthian style.

 

[cherod]

Oui , allez allez , allez Le Cam ?

 

[Tomahawk]

Boat folded in two... .Bloody hell!!!!! or more like wet hell

 

[Hermit]

"Barre de transmission", that carbon bar tied between the two rudders to move them simultaneously

Thank you.

 

[RivalRedwing]

Boat folded in two... .Bloody hell!!!!! or more like wet hell

something of a brown trouser moment (if you had time to think that far ahead...)

 

[Tomahawk]

At least Kevin is safe...

But given he is in the Southern Ocean this is anew definition of "safe" people were previously not aware of.

 

[Frogmogman]

something of a brown trouser moment (if you had time to think that far ahead...)

If you can change your trousers in 4 seconds....well, I'm impressed.

 

[E39mad]

I am beginning to wonder if Theta caused underlying damage to both PRB and Hugo Boss + maybe others. They took one hell of an upwind bashing in the North Atlantic.

 

[Mudisox]

Do you really think that it is a 'survival situation' if he is in a stable liferaft, out of the wind, in a survival suit with an air temperature of 11 Celcius? 11 Celcius was approximately the temperature that my Granny liked to keep her house at - much to my discomfort.

If the life raft is stable and safe, what is the risk? Not temperature, in a survival suit at 11 degrees! More likely overheating!

If he is not in the water and in a safe raft and has flares, a radio, a PLB and a good lifeboat ration of chocolate, and all the wonders of modern technologies are doing their job then he should be OK. If the liferraft and all the gizmos do what they say they will do in the adverts, then he should be fine.

I strongly suggest that Ravi has not been in a life raft for any length of time, or in any poor sea state.