Cap Istanbul Race - Solo Sailor Lost, and Found!

Caligari, Sardinia, Italy - "If you go overboard, you're dead."  Some form of that is the mantra of many an ocean sailor, and particularly solo sailors.  The idea is to stay on the boat, no matter what.  So on Friday, during the solo (singlehanded) Cap Istanbul Race, when Matthieu Girolet came upon competing boat SIRMA flogging in the darkness with a torn spinnaker, the horror of what had happened was soon obvious.  SIRMA was empty, and her skipper Christophe Bouvet was somewhere out in the darkness, lost at sea.

Search and rescue efforts began immediately, and the nearest boats in the fleet diverted to searching for Bouvet.  One by one, all of the other skippers retired from the race and joined the search.  Solo sailors rely on each other to a large degree, as they have nobody else, and the entire fleet knew what their priority was.  Not one of those sailors hasn't thought what it would be like bobbing around in the dark and cold, hoping for rescue.

Thinking quickly, Philippe Chapel jumped in the Race Committee tender and boarded SIRMA.  He backtracked the vessel's navigation software, and relayed the course to the fleet via VHF.  They knew where SIRMA had been, and the hope was that Christophe Bouvet hadn't drifted far from that line.  A sudden squall had sent winds gusting to 45kts, and with the torn chute up, all assumed that's when Bouvet had gone over the side.

An hour went by, and then another.  As the fleet and support boats searched the dark seas for their comrade, firing flares to let him know that he was not alone, things were looking worse and worse.  Even relatively warm seas can cause hypothermia in time, and time was something that was simply running out.  Even if Bouvet was uninjured and wearing his life jacket, his chances of survival were getting smaller by the minute.  Spotting a person in the water on the best of days is nearly impossible, and at night in winds and choppy seas, it's that much worse, but nobody was going to call off the search.

And then the amazing happened.  Over the VHF came a call from Paul Meilhat, one of the first racers to join the search, that he had just picked up a wet, cold, but otherwise fine and completely lucid Christophe Bouvet.  Two hours after the rescue call, and the fleet was whole again.  The day's racing was deemed null and void, and the fleet called in to Caligari for an indeterminate stay.  Many of the boats suffered damage during the "at all costs" rescue effort, and needed repair.

The Cap Istanbul is a solo race from Nice to Istanbul divided into five legs.  The race leg two was restarted yesterday, with no-doubt many racer's minds a bit more focused on safety, as was evidenced by the fact that many skippers were breaking out the lifejackets, whistles, and flashlights.  Bouvet won't be abandoning his friends on the course, as he'll be on a committee boat for the next three legs, providing some well-earned support.

A word to the wise:  If you think lifejackets and safety equipment look stupid or restrict your movement, realize that nothing is as stupid or restricted in motion as a corpse.  Be smart:  take precautions. 

- B. Hampton exclusively for YachtPals.com