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2008/02/18 - 18h39
Capsize off New Zealand
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| Jules Verne Trophy |
| Whilst sailing off New Zealand, Groupama 3 capsized following the breakage of her port float. The ten men were very
quickly airlifted via helicopter by the New Zealand rescue services and taken to Dunedin (South Island). They will do everything
they can to salvage the trimaran once the conditions on zone have improved.
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At 2343 UT on Sunday night, the giant trimaran turned over 80 miles to the East of the New Zealand town of Dunedin (South
Island), the crew having gybed two hours earlier in a thirty knot SW'ly breeze on big seas. Groupama 3 had around a
day's lead over the round the world reference time set by Orange II and had begun its entry into the Pacific Ocean over the
weekend... The crew was unable to do anything to prevent their capsize and was very rapidly picked up by the New Zealand rescue
services, which rushed three helicopters onto the zone. Franck Cammas looks back at how the accident occurred.
"This
Monday morning (late Sunday night UT), we gybed very close to the New Zealand coast by adopting a tack, which was designed
to distance us from the worst of the low that was ahead of us. We set off on starboard tack, due East with 25-30 knots of
wind: we were making good speed at over thirty knots on seas, which had calmed down. At the helm Franck Proffit was on watch
with Fred Le Peutrec and Jan Dekker. The leeward float broke just aft of the forward beam. There was a very quick chain reaction
and within ten seconds the float had taken the beam with it and that too broke.
I was on rest watch up forward,
when I heard the shouts on deck: "Gybe!" and I felt the boat heel over... I had reached the hood when everyone starting hurrying
to come inside: we capsized in the space of ten seconds. It was broad daylight, which enabled us to see what had happened.
There
was nothing left to leeward and Franck immediately tried to gybe, but the manoeuvre became impossible as the float instantly
filled with water: without any support downwind, Groupama 3 capsized relatively slowly onto the side with the flooded, broken
float to port. The crew who were on deck, since the standby watch immediately went up top to make an emergency gybe, all had
time to go below, Franck last. It was necessary for the whole crew to be inside the boat as it turned over so as to limit
the risk...
We immediately saw the damage and straightaway alerted our team on shore of the accident and began to
prepare for the repatriation over the coming days. The New Zealand rescue services, alerted by our distress beacon being set
off, were on the scene four hours later: we saw three helicopters, which did a fantastic job airlifting us off. Everything
was performed in an orderly fashion and at a quick pace since each helicopter was able to take four people. The rescue was
pretty tough with six metre waves. The helicopter couldn't take us whilst we were on the boat so we had to jump into the water
to track down the diver as the trimaran was drifting at three knots. Our rescuers were very fast as we were all onboard helicopters
within an hour."
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