Luke Berry and co-skipper Antoine Joubert were competing in the Transat Jacques Vabre on the Ocean 50 trimaran Le Rire Médecin-Lamotte when the boat dismasted and lost its port float. In an extraordinary effort, assisted by French salvage expert Adrien Hardy, Berry and Joubert were able to save not only the boat, but all its parts. After being towed to Spain they then sailed home to St Malo under jury rig, on just one float: proa-style.
The incident happened hours after the Ocean 50 fleet restarted the Transat Jacques Vabre from Lorient on 6 November, racing in 25-30 knots and 5m waves. “At the start, everybody was quite conservative,” Berry told YW.
“We were very conservative – we had two reefs and the J3, nearly the smallest amount of sail. But we were sailing quite far off the wind. At 70° these boats go very, very fast. And at one
