Escoffier rescued after his boat sinks in the Vendee Globe

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== RESENDING WITH FULL SHOTLIST AND SCRIPT ==

SHOWS: LES SABLES D'OLONNE, FRANCE (DECEMBER 1, 2020) (ASO - SEE RESTRICTIONS)

1. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUBERT LEMONNIER, ASSISTANT RACE DIRECTOR, SAYING:

"So after a few hours altogether stuck in the office finally we managed to save and rescue Kevin (Escoffier) after long hours, thanks to Jean Le Cam. He managed to find him in the dark night and he's safe on board right now so everything is all right at the control end. The race is going on."

2. WHITE FLASH

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUBERT LEMONNIER, ASSISTANT RACE DIRECTOR, SAYING:

"So Kevin sent an alert saying that he had to leave the boat, the boat was basically sinking, and it was very very rushy. As we understood that he told his team 'it's not a joke, I have to leave the boat, the boat is sinking, mayday, come and help me', that was the message.

"After that we had no more means of communication with the boat so we didn't know where and how to liaise with Kevin, so we asked the closest boat, Jean Le Cam, to come, 'yes we can come and search for him.'

"Jean Le Cam after two hours managed to find the boat, kevin was actually in a liferaft in a survival suit. The time it took Jean to help him actually he unfortunately lost track of Kevin so the next hours were very scary."

safe on board right now so everything is all right at the control end. The race is going on."

4. WHITE FLASH

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUBERT LEMONNIER, ASSISTANT RACE DIRECTOR, SAYING:

"So he saw Kevin in the dark in his liferaft and he managed to rescue him, which was very tricky because still a bit lighter conditions, it was still windy 20 knots of wind, and some two or three metres of swell. So he managed to come alongside and pull the line of the liferaft and get Kevin back on board. I think Kevin almost fell in the water and had to be taken on the boat by Jean so it was very very sketchy."

6. WHITE FLASH

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEAN LE CAM SAYING:

"I was two hours away from PRB, something like that, I can't remember all the details but I was close to the target.

"So I got to the position given by the tracker and when I got to the zone, I arrived, it was all good, I saw Kevin in his liferaft."

8. WHITE FLASH

9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEAN LE CAM SAYING:

"I put myself windward of him, I saw Kevin, Kevin asked me 'will you be back?', I said 'no, we are doing this now!'. I threw him the life ring and he caught it, and then he managed to catch the transmission bar and that was it."

STORY: Frenchman Kevin Escoffier was rescued from his sinking boat by fellow Vendee Globe competitor Jean Le Cam on Tuesday (December 1).

Escoffier was in third place in his boat PRB when his boat nose-dived into a wave in heavy seas and broke in two around 840 nautical miles off the Cape of Good Hope.

With his boat's emergency distress beacon automatically activated Escoffier escaped the sinking vessel with a liferaft and survival suit.

Race direction asked Jean Le Cam, the nearest boat, to help with the rescue.

After locating Escoffier, Le Cam's initial attempts to save him failed and he lost sight of the liferaft, at which point the race organisers asked other boats to help in the search.

Le Cam returned five or six times to the area before finally locating Escoffier and bringing him aboard after spending around 11 hours on the liferaft.

The race is continuing with Le Cam and other boats who helped in the search having the time they spent looking deducted from their overall race time.

(Production: Andy Ragg)