When he was heading to Cascais in Portugal on his IMOCA Nexans – Art & Fenêtres after a leak had forced him to leave the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe race course over the weekend at 11.40 a.m. TU solo skipper Fabrice Amedeo had an explosion on board which was immediately followed by a fire.
Amedeo was forced to abandon his boat which sank. Rescue operations were immediately initiated. Alerted by the race management of the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe, the Portuguese maritime rescue services contacted the vessels present in the area of the accident.
The nearby freighter M/V MAERSK BRIDA diverted and the rescue operation went well at 14:32 UT this afternoon. Amedeo is now safe on board the freighter, he is not injured. He will be disembarked tomorrow in the port city of Ponta Delgada on the south coast of the island of São Miguel, in the Azores archipelago.
Amedeo, a 42-year-old former journalist turned ocean racer reported afterwards, “Hello everyone. I am safe and sound on a freighter which will drop me off in the Azores tomorrow morning. My Imoca Nexans – Art et Fenêtres sank in flames before my very eyes. All my dreams went down with my boat.
In his own words, ‘the story of the last few hours.’
