Sailing: MacArthur unhurt as yacht capsizes

The annus horribilis continued for Ellen MacArthur yesterday when the yacht she is navigating in the Cherbourg to Rimini race, Alain Gautier's 60-foot trimaran Foncia, capsized at high speed in the night off the coast of Portugal. Neither she nor any of the other four on board was hurt and Gautier made it very clear that he did not want or need help from the emergency services.

The yacht was clawing its way into the top three of the fleet of 12 on the 2,700-mile race when it hit a submerged underwater hazard. This broke the rudder off the left hand of the three hulls, the yacht swerved to the right, a gust of wind hit it with all its sails at full power, the central hull also lifted clear out of the water and flipped over, breaking the mast and settling upside down in the water.

The crew immediately ensured that no further damage could be done and waited the nearly 12 hours it took to arrange for a tug to steam out of Lisbon, 50 miles to the east, and attach a tow to take the yacht, still upside down but with the crew now safely aboard the tug, back to the Portuguese mainland.

Coming after the major blow of dismasting when her 110-foot catamaran Kingfisher 2 was half way though a round the world record attempt, this was not the result MacArthur wanted in a class which she hopes to join herself in 2005 and for the boat on which she hopes, with Gautier, to contest the two-handed Jacques Vabre race from Le Havre to Bahia de Salvador, Brazil, in November. But it will leave her more time to oversee the building in Australia of the 75-foot trimaran in which she plans a series of solo record attempts.

While also planning to contest, with its skipper Jean-Luc Nelias, the Jacques Vabre, Belgacom, dismasted in the race to Rimini off Cadiz last night, Loick Peyron took time out to announce in Paris yesterday a third French syndicate to challenge for the America's Cup in 2007. He would be general manager of Team France, the other two are Le Defi Francais and K-Yachting Challenge, with Bertrand Pace, tune-up helmsman and adviser to the defeated Team New Zealand in the Cup earlier this year, as skipper.

Peyron said they had set themselves until the end of July to raise at least half of their projected €75m (£54m) budget. He said talks were also being held with the designer Clay Oliver and Rod Davis, first with Prada in the challenger series but then a coach to TNZ in the latter stages.