The captain of a 70-foot trimaran suffered a minor back injury after being ejected as the sailboat was capsized by an unexpected powerful gust.
The accompanying footage shows the dramatic incident involving the vessel Virbac-Paprec, during a training sail for a weekend race off Belle Ile, France.
The red arrow follows Jean-Pierre Dick as he plummets into the water, beginning at the 43-second mark. The vessel then completes the flip, breaking its mast into three pieces.
Dick was winched to safety via helicopter after the Thursday afternoon accident. He complained of back pain and on Sunday he told the French-language BFMTV.com that he suffered a minor compression fracture.
"It will take me a week or two weeks to recover and get over my emotions," he said.
His crewman, Roland Jourdain, managed to stay aboard and was not injured. Wind speed was 15 to 20 knots during the training run, but the stronger gust caught the crew by surprise.
"I'm still in shock. Everything happened so fast," Dick told Sailing Scuttlebutt. "I felt a strong gust hit us from behind… I fell from a great height. I hit something and fell into the water. It was violent. Fortunately, I managed to get back on board very quickly. I quickly realized that my back hurt. We waited for the rescue teams, feeling great sadness."
The pair was training for the Transat Jacques Vabre.
–Pete Thomas, via GrindTv
Forget the Trimaran...back to a keeled IMOCA 60, PLEASE!!!! What's with him an keels anyway?
Posted by: Carmen Scherubel | Oct 15, 2013 at 03:13 PM