Le Cam Rescued

If you grew up sailing dinghies, you probably had sailing instructors who implored you to "stay with the boat" whenever you capsized. That’s exactly what VM Matériaux skipper Jean Le Cam did — just long enough to be rescued from his sinking IMOCA 60 by competitor Vincent Riou.

Le Cam spent 10 hours inside the hull of his overturned boat — which capsized when his keel bulb dropped from the fin after a collision with an unidentified awash object — before Riou was able to arrive at his position.

"I always had it in my head ‘do not leave the boat’," Le Cam said. "Then I didn’t know how long I could live inside."

Thankfully, he didn’t have to push it to the very edge, because yesterday morning Riou showed up. But it wasn’t just a matter of a simple step-aboard transfer. Le Cam had to transit the length of his boat, from bow to stern, to reach the escape hatch. Sound simple? Well, maybe with an upright  boat — and without gear, spares and food plastered to the ceiling. Consider also that the stern of VM Matériaux was completely awash when a fatigued and chilled Le Cam had a decision to make with his life hanging in the balance.

"I heard Vincent’s voice in the morning, and thought, ‘Am I dreaming or not?’" Le Cam said. "Then I heard it again so I was sure he was there, and that’s important, because if you get out and there’s no one there, you’re in really bad shape, because possibly you can’t get back in. There’s only one shot at this. So I opened the hatch and things kept pouring out of the boat. Vincent saw things come out of the hatch, so I put my feet out first and got out in one movement with a wave. I held on, lifted my head up, and saw Vincent, which was a great moment.”

But that wasn’t the end of it. It took Riou three practice runs before he was able to reach Le Cam — who had managed to scramble atop the hull and was hanging on to one of the rudders — with a heaving line. On that fourth attempt, Riou sailed so close that one of the deck spreaders that support the wingmast’s standing rigging made contact with Le Cam’s keel fin, damaging the spreader and later forcing the duo to crash jibe to save the rig.

“I came close the first time, I came close the second time and I missed him, and on the fourth try I managed to throw him the rope," Riou said. "The closer I got, the more risks I took. One big wave is all it would have taken for Jean to be sent off — you can’t resist the pressure of the water. The fourth time I got really close — the hulls didn’t touch but the keel hit my outrigger. At the time I didn’t really care. First I get Jean, then I’ll take care of my outrigger — my priority was set on getting Jean, no matter what.”