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Kevin Escoffier’s Vendée Globe rescue from a liferaft adrift in the Roaring Forties was the result of incredible seamanship. Helen Fretter spoke to him, and the team that co-ordinated the search
“I AM SINKING. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. MAYDAY”
At 1345 (UTC) on Monday 30 November, on a grey and lumpy South Atlantic some 840 miles south-west of Cape Town, Kevin Escoffier was 3rd in the single-handed Vendée Globe when his boat, the IMOCA 60
PRB, suddenly and catastrophically broke up. Escoffier had time only to send a three line Whatsapp message to his shore team before all communication with the boat was lost. It would be 11 hours before anyone on land heard from him again. This is the story of his stunning Vendée rescue.
Safe and sound Rescued Vendee Globe skipper tells of wave folding boat in four seconds
French skipper Kevin Escoffier controls his Imoca 60 monohull PRB on the eve of the start of the Vendee Globe round-the-world monohull solo sailing race in Les Sables-d Olonne, France on November 7. Photo: AFP
The French Vendee Globe skipper recovering after a dramatic rescue by a rival competitor 600 nautical miles (1,111.2 kilometers) off the Cape of Good Hope on Tuesday has spoken of how a giant wave folded his boat in two in four seconds.
Kevin Escoffier was reported safe and sound on board rival Jean Le Cam s boat 11 hours after sending out a distress signal.