Sailing Jacques Vabre race: Damian Foxall was evacuated by helicopter from his stricken trimaran Foncia early yesterday following a capsize that hurled the 36-year-old Kerry man into the rigging of the 60-foot craft. He broke three ribs, a shoulder and collar bone.
The accident happened when Foxall, Ireland's leading professional sailor, was challenging for the lead against Groupama-2 only two days into the Jacques Vabre race from Le Havre, across the Atlantic, to Brazil.
The accident not only rules him out of any further participation in this race, but puts a doubt over his fitness to compete in the Volvo Ocean race, which starts this weekend. He was booked to sail as a helmsman on board Brazil 1 with Olympic gold medallist Torben Grael on the second leg of the round-the-world race from Cape Town in January.
Clinging on to one of the upturned hulls, his co-skipper, Armel Le Cléac'h, liaised with shore crew by radio in order to get the rescue mission under way as waves washed over Foxall as he lay injured on the port hull.
Other competitors in the Jacques Vabre - including Ellen MacArthur - continued to be battered by storm-force winds that have swept through the fleet.
By lunchtime, a French naval helicopter had located the sole Irish entrant and his 28-year-old French partner and sent a diver on board to winch the pair to safety.
The injured Derrynane sailor was brought on board the aircraft carrier Jeanne d'Arc to receive medical assistance some 220 kilometres off the French coast.
Other boats in the race were also seeking assistance after shifting, strong winds forced the fleet to tack.
Also out of the multihull division are two Swiss skippers, Steve and Yvan Ravussin from Orange Project, who were also dropped off on the Jeanne d'Arc.
Thomas Coville and Jacques Vincent, on Sodebo, which was dismasted, were picked up by fishermen off the Brittany coast yesterday morning and are heading to Brest on the fishing boat with the trimaran in tow.
The sea was so rough that the fishing boats in the area had stopped working and so were able to come to the assistance very quickly.
While Foxall was competing with with the youngest sailor in the fleet, he is no stranger to the Jacques Vabre race. In 2003, after 11 days three hours, covering some 4,500 miles, Karin Fauconnier and Foxall finished third, arriving 4:09:47 behind the leader Groupama and Belgacom in second.
