Etienne Giroire is an veteran of many singlehanded and crewed offshore races and is the founder of ATN Inc which sells sailing gear like the Spinnaker Snuffer, the Gale Sail and the Mast Climber. He recently retired and will this winter move aboard his new-to-him cruising boat and head off for a season in the Caribbean. This is the second of his “sea tales” to run in Cruising Compass.
In 1984, I participated at the first edition of the transatlantic race “Quebec to St Malo” to celebrate the 400th birthday of the creation of Quebec City and to serv the growing fleet of large multihulls racing from England to Newport in the 1984 Ostar. That was the oldest single handed transatlantic race and had run every 4 years, since 1960. The first edition of the Ostar was won by Sir Francis Chichester in 40 days.
The Ostar win of the French Legend Eric Tabarly in 1964 (in 27 days) had prompted a surge of interest in the French public and sailing was discovered by the wide population, who before had seen sailing as an elitist sport only.
So, 20 years later, a large fleet of maxi multihulls, trimarans and catamarans, had been manufactured and was looking for offshore races which were followed by the new generation of sailors and public at large.
One of the newer, faster Catamaran was “Formula TAG.” She was an 82-foot Jertemy Irens design for the Canadian Ace Michael Birch. He was the local favorite of the fleet with its large Canadian flag.
I was crew member on a 60-foot catamaran that we named “Eminence” (the underwear brand) for the race. This catamaran had raced in the Ostar with its skipper Bruno Peyron under the name of “VSD” acronym of “Vendredi Samedi Dimanche” a popular French weekly magazine.
We had sailed “VSD-Eminence” from Newport to Quebec City without an engine, tacking around Cape Cod, Maine and entering the St Laurence River, avoiding whales and rocks. We saw Belugas (smaller white whale) at the entrance of the Saguenay river.
Quebec City was filled with boats and crew and tourists, all the large maxi multihulls were there: “Royale” 85’ a cat with its 100-foot rotating mast, “Fleury Michon 6” and “Charente Maritime 2.”
The start of the race was on Sunday morning with thousands of spectators looking from the Chateau Frontenac. The fleet was very impressive, and very quick, as we set off downwind with spinnakers up as we headed down the St Laurence.
A 60’ Proa “Guadeloupe” dismasted just ahead of us. As we had to round some navigation marks close to shore to increase visibility sometime in the middle of the night, and a couple of boats collided with the next buoy at high speed, requiring repairs. The only US entry in the race, the 60’ Catamaran “Double Bullett” sank three days later
The race was fast. We exited the St Laurence quickly, then sailed through the French Islands of St Pierre et Miquelon, and then ran into the open North Atlantic Ocean. Big waves were common, and we were running on a broad reach, mainsail reefed and eased out all the way on the traveler. The heavy jib was fully deployed and sheeted out to the lee hull.
The wind was force 5 all the time, sometime 6, and we were averaging 15 knots, sometime 20 on the surfs. Ahead of us, the maxis were speeding with this perfect running situation: this is the first time that a multihull sailed more than 500 miles in 24 hours when “Formula TAG” clicked off 512 miles.
“Eminence-VSD” had a small center cockpit, and two side steering stations behind the aft beam. There was no protection, but these were better places for the helmsman, sitting on the hull, with the large tiller in hand. This was our favored steering station, especially on long surfs, but white water would lap up often and required us to wear a safety harness.
We were a crew of four, Richard and Fredo, Bruno and me, two per watch. At noon, I went go down the hatch to catch some sleep. Suddenly, Richard pushed my hatch open and screamed “Fredo est passe par dessus bord!” “ Fredo is overboard!”
With everyone on deck: we had to stop the boat, reduce sail, set up the boat to claw upwind to reach Fredo who is disappearing quickly behind us, screaming his head off, and trying to stay afloat without a life jacket. He took his boots off and used them upside down to add some buoyancy..
We had lot to do and were still sailing away from Fredo too fast. I suddenly remembered a safety rule I’d learned as a young man: In case of man overboard, one sailor must climb on the highest point of the boat, find the overboard sailor, and keep his straight arm in the direction of the sailor at all times, never losing sight of him.
This was very difficult as the seas were large; sometimes we were on top of a wave with Fredo in sight, and sometimes it was the opposite. Luckily, I was with some very good sailors: they don’t need me to fix the boat: the mainsail got reefed down, the traveler winched up midship. The genoa was furled up, the centerboards lowered all the way down, and we were now sailing upwind against heavy seas..
I remained on my watchful search, no sun, no horizon, grey skies, I lost sight of Fredo a few times, and once I found him again when seagull landed next to him, fishing for its next meal.
After 35 minutes of tacking, we finally reached him, got him aboard exhausted and wet. One of his fingers was crooked, dislocated and bent to 90 degrees. We pulled it out and fixed it immediately, then dried him off and sent him below to sleep. He slept 12 hours straight. Luckily, we were on the edge of the Gulf Stream, so the water was not freezing, otherwise, Fredo wouldn’t have survived.
After this episode, the race was not our focus anymore: we very nearly lost one of us: this reminded us very clearly that we are sailing on top of an indifferent ocean, an open pit which is ready to swallow any of us at the first mistake.
We finished the race on the middle of the pack, the race was won by “Royale” 5 minutes ahead of “Charente Maritime 2” on a Sunday morning. There were one million of people in the old city and on the ramparts of St Malo waiting for them.
“Formula TAG” finished 5th, caught in some calms approaching Brittany as it is often the case in late Summer. I then joined the crew of “Formula TAG” for more offshore racing around the Atlantic… I was very lucky to be part of the very beginning of the maxi multihull offshore racing, and I created my company “ATN Inc” upon my return in the US in 1985.
