Ten French sailors winched safely from their upturned trimaran in 5m swells and 40-knot winds yesterday were full of praise for the copybook helicopter rescue.
Within an hour of being rescued and flown to Taieri airfield, the sailors, competing in the Jules Verne Round the World Yacht Race, were preparing to save their stricken boat, which was wallowing 145km off the coast of Otago.
‘‘It's not the end of the world. We just have to try again,'' skipper Franck Cammas (35) said through translator, bowman Jan Dekker (40).
The crew of the yacht - which was ahead of the race record - would not be abandoning the boat, he said.
‘‘We are going to organise a rescue operation to bring the boat back here.'' Weather conditions were improving, ‘‘so, with the help of the locals, hopefully, we are going to fetch the boat''.
Mr Cammas praised his rescuers yesterday. ‘‘The New Zealand rescue system, service, was very efficient, very quick. This happened four hours ago and already we are here.''
It was the greatest number of people winched to safety by the Dunedin Water Rescue Squad in one incident in its more than 15-year history.
Three rescue helicopters winched the crew of the French trimaran Groupama 3 to safety about 3.30pm.
The incident began when Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand received a call from its equivalent in France at 1.20pm, reporting it had picked up a signal from the vessel's 406Mhz Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon.
Three helicopters, the Dunedin-based Lion Foundation Rescue Helicopter, one from Helicopters Otago and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, from Christchurch, each with a rescue swimmer and paramedic, flew to the yacht. Fixed-wing aircraft were called in to assist and an air force Orion was put on stand-by.
Dunedin Water Rescue Squad member Senior Sergeant Brian Benn said the sailors were in dry suits on the hull when the rescuers arrived.
Rescue swimmers were winched into the sea, where they were joined by the sailors so they could be lifted one at a time well away from the hull and rigging. High swells meant the rescue swimmers were in the water one second and ‘‘flying'' in mid-air the next, he said.
The sailors were in good spirits, Snr Sgt Benn said. He described the rescue as going very smoothly. On arrival at Taieri airfield, the sailors dried off and had a hot drink before being processed by Customs officials.
RCCNZ Mission co-ordinator Keith Allen said the incident highlighted the value of people carrying a 406Mhz EPIRB, which was able to be detected by satellite within minutes.
The efficiency of the rescue was praised last night by St John southern regional operations manager Doug Third.
The trimaran flipped while on starboard tack. One area of the port hull broke, then the cross beams, and within 10 seconds the boat began to capsize.
‘‘We all ran inside the boat as fast as we could. Another 10 seconds and the whole thing was flipped over,'' Mr Cammas said.
When a trimaran capsized, moving inside was considered to be the safest place, as outside sailors risked being washed away, Mr Cammas said.
As professional sailors, some of whom had experienced similar situations, they were all very calm and dealt with the situation.
The sailors were unsure of how the port hull broke but believed it may have been a structural failure.
‘‘Perhaps because of the bad weather we had a few days ago in the Indian Ocean [it] might have caused some damage. But basically we didn't hit anything.''
Instead, they were counting their luck, given it was the first time for some days that the yacht had been so close to land. It left the English Channel 24 days ago.
‘‘It could have happened two days ago, when we were in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Two days from now, we would have been half-way across the Pacific,'' Mr Cammus said.
The sailors all managed to take off the yacht essentials such as passports, credit cards and video of their trip and the rescue.
‘‘There is still lots of stuff in the boat but we are going to go and fetch it,'' he said.
‘‘Basically, we feel very lucky it happened here and nobody was injured. It could have been a lot worse.'' - Rebecca Fox and Mark Price
