A capsize during the 3 e around Alone stage
It's February 1999. 16 competitors, divided into two classes, are competing in Around Alone, previously known as the Boc Challenge, the solo round-the-world race with stopovers. During the third leg, between Auckland and Punta Del Este, Isabelle Autissier is on the attack aboard the Finot PRB design, a modern, powerful boat launched in 1996.
Isabelle is in 2 e position, 33 miles behind Marc Thiercelin and 130 miles ahead of Giovanni Soldini.
Conditions are rather clement for a South Pacific, with 25 knots of wind but heavy seas. Isabelle is at the chart table, fine-tuning her strategy, when the autopilot stalls, leaving PRB to head off. Isabelle heads for the cockpit door to get out and get the boat underway again, but a larger-than-life wave lifts her 60-footer by the stern, and she begins a fatal capsize.
Upside down in the middle of the Pacific
Isabelle can't believe what's happening to her. In 1 minute, she went from racing mode to survival mode. She tilted her hydraulic keel as far as it would go in an attempt to right her boat, but to no avail. She manages to contact her team via Iridium. She is halfway between New Zealand and Cape Horn, far from any trade route.
Only one other competitor could help her. Although further away, Giovanni Soldini is the most likely to come to Isabelle's aid. He set course for the position sent by PRB's Argos beacon.
Aboard her overturned boat, Isabelle dons her survival suit and settles into the afterpeak, close to the escape hatch.
After twenty hours of sailing, Giovanni arrived on the scene. Conditions had deteriorated, with 35 knots of wind and very poor visibility. Assisted by meteorologist Pierre Lasnier, he found the overturned hull after just 20 minutes of searching.
After a first pass, he changes tack to get closer to the wreck, and throws a hammer on the hull to signal his presence to Isabelle.
The sailor then inflated her life raft, abandoned her boat and headed for the Italian 60-footer.
25 hours after the capsize, Giovanni writes to Race HQ: ".. Isabelle is aboard Fila. All is well. I'm going on a cruise with her ".
The two sailors finished the leg together, with Giovanni proclaimed the winner following Marc Thiercelin's dismasting off the Falklands.
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This is the second time Isabelle Autissier has had to abandon her boat. In 1994, the dismasting of Ecureuil Poitou Charentes, her boat in the previous edition of the Boc Challenge, tore off the roof and part of the deck, forcing the navigator to be airlifted out by the Australian navy.
This time, his 60-footer capsized following a head-on start caused by an autopilot failure. In just 25 knots of wind, his monohull, designed to race around the world, remained upside down. Despite its canting keel, this 60-foot generation was very stable upside down. What's more, the appendages were not painted fluorescent, which greatly reduced the chances of rescue.
Others were not as lucky as Isabelle. In 1996, Gerry Roof disappeared in the same area and on a boat designed by the same architectural firm. In 1998, during a crewed delivery trip, Giovanni Soldini capsized aboard Fila off Brittany. His crew member Andrea Romanelli was never found. Thierry Dubois's boat also remained upside down after being rolled in the Indian Ocean during the 2 e Vendée Globe.
Isabelle's accident marked the end of her career in solo ocean racing. She passed the torch to Michel Desjoyeaux, who won the 2000 Vendée Globe on a new boat.
As for Giovanni Soldini, Gérard d'Aboville will present him with the Légion d'honneur on the orders of President Jacques Chirac.
A new accident that will call into question the gauge
Under pressure, skippers and architects had to make several changes to the rule. The external parts of the boat, including the keel and rudders, as well as a section of the hull, must be painted in fluorescent color.
Boats are also required to be designed to recover from capsizing by tilting the canting keel.
Last but not least, in the Vendée Globe, gates delimiting an exclusion zone are imposed to prevent skippers from descending too far south, thus limiting the likelihood of a painful encounter with the ice.
