Multi50 update, severed float bow recovered and returned to Maitre Jacques team by fishing boat

Thanks to the following article on vsail.info:

http://www.vsail.info/2014/02/04/multi-50-maitre-jacques-broken-float-washes-up-after-three-months-adrift-in-the-atlantic-ocean/

It seems that Jose Salvador Alvarenga isn’t the only castaway to make the news today. The El Salvador national claims to have been adrift on the Pacific Ocean for nearly 13 months, after setting off from Mexico and washing up a few days ago on a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands, roughly 6,700 miles away.

Nearly three months ago, on November 3rd, 2013, the Multi 50 Maitre Jacques trimaran sustained heavy damage on her starboard float while she was taking part in the Transat Jacques Vabre, the double-handed race from Le Havre to Itajaí, Brasil.

Early in the afternoon of November 3rd, the two French co-skippers, Loïc Fequet and Loïc Escoffier, were sailing in big seas at speeds of between 20 and 28 knots on starboard tack in 25 knot winds and 4-5 meter waves, when they suddenly heard two cracks and realised that the front section of the their trimaran’s starboard float was damaged.

read more here

The recovered float bow next to the repatriated Maitre Jacques, photo courtesy vsail.info