Rescued and Rescue
In the early afternoon of November 30, Kevin Escoffier was dashing through the Southern Ocean aboard his IMOCA 60, PRB, one of 33 skippers competing in the Vendee Globe nonstop solo around-the-world race. By any measure, things were going well. He was in third place, hot on the heels of second-place Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut). It therefore came as shock to his team when a little over 800 miles southeast of Cape Town, South Africa, his EPIRB went off.
The boat had been cruising at 27 knots when it nosedived into a wave. Escoffier ducked down in the cockpit to avoid the surge. He arose to find the boat’s bow had cracked in two just ahead of the mast bulkhead. In seconds, the boat was flooded with water.
