Launched since last year on an Ocean Fifty project under the colors of Lazare x Hellio, Tanguy Le Turquais (36) and Erwan Le Draoulec (29) experienced a complicated end to the year with a capsizing a few hours after the start of the last Transat Café L’Or, which forced them to find financial solutions to set off again in 2026. One month before the trimaran’s relaunch, Sailorz spoke with the two sailors.
Let’s first go back to that capsizing during the first night of the Transat Café L’Or; with hindsight, do you have more details on exactly what happened?
Erwan Le Draoulec: We won’t know much more than what we observed a week later. We just know that we hit something about twenty minutes before, not ultra-violent, not head-on, but enough to tear the skin of the leeward port float. The latter then filled with water and upon reaching the cross seas and the current at Raz Blanchard, all it took was a small pitchpole for us to capsize. The float was torn off because we should never have capsized forward; we realized this when we were winched out by helicopter and saw that six meters of length were missing up to the front beam. We later recovered a few pieces of the bow, but not the one where the impact occurred, so there will inevitably always be a small uncertainty, which we are trying to correct by reinforcing everything to eliminate that tiny percentage of the unknown.
Was this first capsizing a traumatic experience for both of you?
Tanguy Le Turquais: It was a significant experience, we went through a moment that wasn’t pleasant; when you find yourself under the hull with a three-year-old daughter and your pregnant wife back on land, you tell yourself: “This isn’t where I should be”. From there to saying that I won’t get back on an Ocean Fifty, no, I’m not traumatized to the point of not wanting to go boating again. Now, when you do multihulls, you know you risk this kind of thing, so I live with it; it doesn’t keep me up at night, even if for the first few weeks with Erwan, we were a bit shaken. And since he is the one who will be doing the Route du Rhum, the priority goal was that he shouldn’t be traumatized, which is why he participated in the return delivery of Edenred from the Azores; he needed to get back in the saddle as quickly as possible.
Erwan Le Draoulec: Thinking back on this capsizing, I tell myself we were very lucky to be together; it would have been different with another crewmate who would have gone back to his own business after this episode. With Tanguy, we are much more than crewmates or project colleagues, so just being able to talk about it over the following few weekends did us a lot of good; we managed to bring humor to it quite quickly. And indeed, the team was great to free up time for me to participate in the Edenred delivery. When you find yourself doing the routing in Horta with files predicting reaching in 25 knots, the same kind of weather as at the start of the transat, you take a deep breath and off you go! It did me a lot of good; I haven’t had the same kind of nights after that delivery as I did before.
“We were missing 1.1 million euros”
In what condition did you recover your boat?
Erwan Le Draoulec: Firstly, it’s incredible to have managed to recover the platform in that state so quickly; the SNSM (rescue boat) was on-site two hours after our helicopter rescue, we owe them a huge amount, it’s thanks to them that this project could continue…
Tanguy Le Turquais: When we arrived at the Cross offices (after being rescued), the drift simulation predicted that it would be in the cliffs of Raz Blanchard by 7 a.m. We were then in discussion with Adrien Hardy and who was too far away with his boat to be in the zone on time, so Erwan and I were despondent, we thought we were going to lose our boat. We went to take a shower, and barely a few minutes later, we were told that Lazare was under tow. They were incredibly efficient, with two guys diving under the platform at night in the Raz with weather that wasn’t cool at all; they saved the boat for us, it was quite incredible.
And what was the extent of the damage?
Tanguy Le Turquais: The platform was fairly sound, but the mast was missing, as well as the coachroof, the torn-off piece of the float, a large half of the electronics, some ropes, the mainsail, the J2, and a few pieces of hardware.
So a lot of work ahead; how much did you estimate it would cost and have you managed to finance it?
Tanguy Le Turquais: We quickly estimated that we were missing 1.1 million euros, 600,000 for the shipyard and 500,000 to allow us to do the season up until the Rhum, knowing that we were already in a complicated financial situation. The luck we have is that we have a multi-partner project, which means that instead of asking a lot from one big sponsor, many “small” ones agreed to put a small percentage of their initial investment back into the pot; new partners have also joined us. Then, even though we weren’t really for it at the beginning because it’s awkward to ask people for money, we set up a crowdfunding campaign because many people were asking how they could help us; that allowed us to raise 100,000 euros. Today, we are on the right track, we are missing 300,000 euros.
Concretely, where does the work stand (at Nautymor, in Hennebont)?
Erwan Le Draoulec: We received the new coachroof and the bow section which were manufactured at the JPS shipyard; we are in the process of grafting the float, the trimaran is no longer amputated. In parallel, the electronics are being reinstalled, the mast is under construction at Lorima, we will relaunch in mid-March, and the stepping of the mast will take place ten days later. Since we will have a “semi-new” boat, we will need to do some test sails before cautiously delivering it to the Mediterranean to start the season (Act 1 in Sainte-Maxime from April 29 to May 2).
“We obviously want
to continue after the Rhum”
So it’s Erwan who will be at the start of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe; was that planned this way from the beginning?
Tanguy Le Turquais: We didn’t sell it to the partners like that right away, because the Lazare project was very much personified by me after the Vendée Globe. We had to make a smooth transition in the first year, with the idea that if Erwan managed to find his place, embody Lazare, and be validated by the partners, he would be the one to go on the Route du Rhum. I had no doubt about it, but it went very well, so the idea was confirmed. You have to understand that I realized my dream of doing the Vendée Globe at 35 thanks to a lot of people; at some point, I just wanted to give back what I had received and I thought it would be great to continue evolving in this environment by moving to the other side of the fence and helping to realize someone else’s dream. In this case, that of my great friend Erwan to do the Route du Rhum on an Ocean Fifty. And as I speak to you (Friday morning), I have a two-month-old baby in my arms who is falling asleep, another who is going to ask me for breakfast, so I am also very happy to take care of my family. It’s a very good balance.
Erwan Le Draoulec: I can’t really explain it, but it’s true that I’ve always dreamed of sailing multihulls. Ocean Fifties are light, fast machines, technologically quite simple, but they require a huge mental commitment; I want that, it’s what drives me. And for the past year, I’ve also wanted to do it for Lazare. At first, I went into it to do trimaran sailing with a friend, and in fact, I discovered much more than just a sporting project and that gives me even more motivation to do a great Route du Rhum.
With what sporting ambitions?
Tanguy Le Turquais: To win!
Erwan Le Draoulec: We have a great boat, a great project; what we lack is experience. I would have liked to have had two transats under my belt, but nonetheless, this capsizing is an experience that removes an unknown. It’s going to be up to me to rise to the occasion.
What will be the next step for the project?
Tanguy Le Turquais: The ambition when we bought this boat was to set up a stable project over the long term, knowing that to perform in Ocean Fifty, you need to gain experience. Now, with what happened to us, I confess we haven’t projected ourselves too much on the future; we’re already trying to complete a full year and honor our commitments to our partners. We obviously want to continue after the Rhum, but we haven’t signed anything with anyone.
Image : Martin Keruzoré
