Armel Le Cléac'h on his capsize: "In a few seconds, everything flipped"

One week after his boat capsized in the middle of the Atlantic, French skipper Armel Le Cléac'h is back on dry land. He has also told, for the first time, how the night unfolded.

What happened?

Le Cléac'h came ashore on Wednesday 11 November in Norfolk, Virginia (United States). His wife, Aurélie, and Sébastien Josse, sporting director of the Banque Populaire team, were there to meet him.

He had left Saint-Malo as one of the favourites in the Route du Rhum (the famous solo transatlantic race). Before the accident, he says, things were going well. He and his weather team were in the match with Tom Laperche on SVR-Lazartigue, and the two boats were very close.

Then came a stronger band of wind and a wind shift. He had reduced sail and was getting ready to tack. "In a few seconds, everything flipped," he says. It was dark, and the boat went onto its side very fast. Even the anti-capsize systems could not absorb the violence of the moment. His team says the gust reached 40 knots, close to 75 km/h.

Alarms, a survival suit and a cargo ship

His first reflex was to hold on. He managed to get inside the central hull without being swept away. Then came the full capsize, with alarms blaring. "It's a blackout," he recalls.

Without thinking, he followed the safety routine: shelter, trigger the distress beacon, put on the survival suit and take out the emergency gear.

He learned a cargo ship would arrive in seven to eight hours. He forced himself to eat and drink to keep his strength. The Panamanian cargo ship, the Palexpo, had never rescued anyone at sea before. It took several attempts. At one point he was in the water, tied to a rope, with the ship about 20 metres away.

What's next?

"I'm lucky to be alive and not injured," he says, while admitting the aftermath felt crushing. "I end up on a cargo ship in the middle of the Atlantic, it's hard to accept."

His team still faces one delicate job: towing Banque Populaire XI, which is still floating upside down in the Atlantic. Le Cléac'h, who won the 2016-17 Vendée Globe in record time, says he is trying to keep perspective.