Gerry Roufs

Gerry Roufs (born November 2, 1953 in Montreal ; lost January 1997 ) was a Canadian professional racing sailor who disappeared in the Southern Ocean during the one-handed regatta Vendée Globe in 1996/97 .

Life

As a child, Roufs began dinghy sailing at the Hudson Yacht Club in Montreal . Already at the age of eleven he became the Canadian youth champion in his boat class. At 23 he was a member of the Canadian Olympic Sailing Team and remained so for seven years. During this time he graduated from the Law School of the University of Montreal. A year after his exams, he left the professional world of a lawyer and became a professional sailor. In 1978 he finished second at the 470 dinghy world championship .

But the now experienced dinghy sailor strove to sail larger boats across oceans. He got the opportunity to do this in 1983 when skipper Mike Birch hired him as a crew member on his catamaran Formule Tag . Birch wanted at least one member of the team to come from Canada and hired the experienced dinghy sailor. The two became friends and settled in France in the southern Breton sailing town of La Trinité-sur-Mer . For three years they sailed transatlantic races together and achieved a fifth place on the Transat Québec Saint-Malo (from Québec to Saint-Malo ), a third place in the Ruta del Descubrimiento 1984 (from Benalmádena / Spain to Santo Domingo / Dominican Republic) and first place in a one-time regatta from Monaco to New York in 1985.

In 1986 Roufs was part of the crew of the Royale when this double-hulled boat set a speed record for Atlantic crossings. Then he sailed for three years under skipper Serge Madec on the catamaran Jet Services V , which twice won the Course de l'Europe (stage race around the coasts of northwestern Europe) and the two transatlantic regattas Transat Québec Saint-Malo in 1988 and Ruta del Descubrimiento in 1988, both with speed records.

1993 Gerry Roufs was in the team of the EPC by Isabelle Autissier added. The collaboration with the respected sailor and his own experience ultimately helped him achieve his dream - his own boat. The French manufacturer of cleaning products "Groupe LG" was looking for a skipper to transport the company's own one-hand racing yacht Groupe LG from New Zealand to France. The previous skipper, Bertrand de Broc, had been instructed by his racing team during the Vendée Globe 1992/93, in which he was third, to approach New Zealand because of feared problems with the keel of the boat. With that he was disqualified. After the ship was taken out of the water and found to be in order, de Broc loudly criticized the sponsor and designer. He terminated the collaboration with Groupe LG, flew back to France and left the boat in New Zealand. Roufs seized the opportunity and became the skipper of Groupe LG . After he had contested two one-handed Atlantic races with the boat (6th and 3rd place), the company decided to have a new ship built especially for the Vendée Globe 1996/97. The new Groupe LG 2 , designed by Groupe Finot, was launched in September 1995.

In the 1995 and 1996 Figaro races, Roufs performed poorly and his position as skipper of the upcoming Vendée Globe was controversial. But he was able to dispel the doubts within the company when he won the Europe 1 Star Atlantic competition in 1996.

On November 3, 1996, one day after his 43rd birthday, he started with his boat Groupe LG 2 in the toughest single-handed sailing race in the world, the Vendée Globe.

Vendée Globe 1996/97

The one-handed race Vendée Globe is a one-handed regatta non-stop around the world. i.e. without having to step into the country in between. The route leads from Les Sables-d'Olonne in France through the Biscay to the south, past the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, along the west coast of Africa, along the Brazilian coast around the Cape of Good Hope down to the Southern Ocean . The Antarctic is circled in an easterly direction, then it goes past Cape Horn again northwards back to France. In 1996 a total of 16 participants took to the start with their boats (see Vendée Globe for an individual list ), including Isabelle Autissier with the PRB . One participant, Raphael Dinelli, went with his boat Algimousse out of valuation because, in the opinion of the race management, he had not met the required qualification.

After a month at sea, at the beginning of January 1997 the field of participating yachts had spread to more than 5000 nautical miles . Roufs was in second place - but still 1,600 miles behind the leading Christophe Auguin, who was to win the race in the end.

On January 9, 1997, the satellite-based Argos position indicator of Groupe LG 2 suddenly stopped transmitting. The EPIRB emergency marine buoys, five of which were on board, were not activated. In addition, there was no longer any radio link to the Roufs. There were various possible scenarios for the race management that could explain the situation that had occurred. These ranged from a simple technical defect to a broken mast with loss of the antennas and the worst. The boat could have had a severe collision with an iceberg and broke apart and sank in no time. Then Roufs might not have had the opportunity to activate an EPIRB buoy. Or it could have been washed overboard by a breaker. The boat might have sailed on for a while and then capsized. That would eventually have silenced the Argossians. The fact was that a violent storm was raging at the time. In his last message, Roufs had sent: "These are no longer waves, but mountains as high as the Alps."

Isabelle Autissier, who had approached Roufs Groupe LG 2 up to 20 miles in the past few days , reported on January 7th that she no longer had radio contact with him. She also reported a hurricane- like storm with waves up to 20 meters high. “It's a war out here!” She faxed to her country team on the morning of January 8th.

The search operation

The rescue coordination center " CROSS " ( Center régional opérationnel de surveillance et de sauvetage ) in Brittany ordered the search for the missing sailor. However, the last known position Roufs was at 55 ° 0 '0 "  S , 124 ° 0' 0"  W . This is about 2,400 miles from the Chilean coast and just as far from the New Zealand coast. Too far for the SAR long-haul aircraft of the " Lockheed P-3- Orion" type. Isabelle Autissier was now 150 miles from the last known position of Groupe LG 2 . She herself was in serious trouble. For more than 24 hours she had struggled with the severe storm that had tossed her boat on its side half a dozen times. She had broken a finger in the process. In addition, the main and jib halyard on her boat had broken. The storm jib was rolled out to a third and could no longer be changed because the furling device was defective. Although she reported that she was at the limit of her strength, she tried. She now had to steer exactly against the wind. After cruising against for 24 hours, she was still approximately 100 miles from the search area. Thereupon she was officially exempted from her search order by the CROSS. Even so, she tried to continue cruising for a while, but eventually had to give up and run away from the wind. A Panamanian freighter, the Mass Enterprise , reached the search area on the evening of January 9th. A day later, another Vendee Globe participant, Pierre Thiercelin, joined them. The more distant sailors Laurent and de Broc also set course for the search area, but had to turn back 160 miles beforehand due to the catastrophic weather forecast (60 knots of wind and very rough seas). In addition, the sea area in which Roufs was possibly floating was increasing from hour to hour.

On January 11th, the Mass Enterprise had to break off the search due to its dwindling fuel supplies. When the expected new storm struck, Thiercelin also gave up - but only after he had not only been released from his obligation by the CROSS, but also directly instructed to leave the area due to the bad weather.

On January 12th and 13th, the area was searched by RADARSAT-1 , a high-performance civilian radar satellite operated by the Canadian Space Agency. Four series of pictures were taken and eighteen possible positions identified. The nearby Indian freighter Aditya Gaurav systematically went to all of them, but found nothing. Without being able to do anything, he finally continued his journey.

Further Radarsat images were taken on January 15, but no possible blobs or objects could be detected. On the evening of the same day, Eric Dumont reached the last location with his Café Legal-le Goût Roufs. Despite 45 knots of wind and a lot of drifting ice, he searched for another 24 hours. Then the wind increased to 50 knots (strength 10 on the Beaufort scale ) and Dumont also had to give up.

This ended the specific search for Gerry Roufs after a week. The Chileans continued to make reconnaissance flights off Cape Horn in case Roufs was still sailing under emergency rigging and was en route to a port of refuge. If only he had had a radio failure, he could well be rounding Cape Horn at this point. However, this search measure was also unsuccessful.

Michele Cartier, Rouf's wife, was certain that he was still alive. She was waiting with daughter Emma in Montreal. After the end of the race, she raised allegations against the race management, the CROSS rescue control center and individual regatta participants because she was of the opinion that the search had been abandoned too quickly.

On June 17, 1997, a freighter sighted the drifting wreck of a yacht about 250 miles off the coast of Chile. He notified the Chilean authorities. The next day, a naval plane flew over the remains of the boat and made video recordings of it. The hull appeared to be undamaged. It could be seen that the keel fin including ballast bulge was still there. On the same day, heavy weather set in for four days. The wreck disappeared again and a subsequent search by Chilean ships and planes was unsuccessful.

After evaluating the video recordings by experts from the construction company Groupe Finot and Michele Cartier, it was clear that it was Roufs Groupe LG 2 . Even the ship's name was recognizable. The thesis that the yacht broke apart and sank after colliding with an iceberg was thus refuted.

On September 1, 1997, a message appeared on the website of the "Association sur la route de Gerry Roufs" founded by Michele Cartier that the remains of the wreck of Groupe LG 2 on the rocks of the southern Chilean island of Atalaya 52 ° 21 ′ 0 ″  S , 74 ° 46 ′ 48 ″  W , at the entrance to the Strait of Magellan . The location of the wreckage (Atalaya = watchtower ) later moved Michele Cartier to the title of her book Une Atalaya pour Gerry Roufs .

There is still no trace of Gerry Roufs.

Individual proof

1. ↑ Derek Lundy: Merciless Sea , ISBN 3-7688-1146-8

Web link

• Website of the Association sur la route de Gerry Roufs ( Memento of October 20, 2002 in the Internet Archive )