Prior to leaving Newlyn, the wind had been blowing hard from the north, but had gone round to the south. The forecast had been for 2-3m swells, but the crew reported later that in reality the left over swell was nearer 3-4m and at the time of the incident Pen Duick I was being struck by repeated rain squalls. Pen Duick was sailing under a small jib with two reefs in the mainsail and Tabarly decided that it would be prudent to drop the mainsail and hoist the storm trisail.

In addition to Tabarly there were four crew on board, a photographer, a naval officer and two skiing friends of Tabarly's from Chamonix. The photographer was on the helm, two others were at the mast dealing with the halyards and Tabarly was by the boom waiting to guide the gaff down in order to tie it to the boom. As the mainsail was being dropped the gaff was swinging from side to side in the heavy swell, and struck Tabarly in the chest throwing him overboard. A lifebuoy was thrown after him, but there was no light attached to it. At the time the yacht was lying 35 miles SSW of Milford Haven, SW Wales.

It was a while before the crew could get the mainsail under control, drop the headsail and fire up the engine. Pen Duick is a classic yacht, and was en route to Belfast to celebrate her 100th anniversary. She had a GPS on board and the crew had a position from two hours prior to the incident and could calculate with reasonable accuracy where Tabarly had fallen overboard. Unfortunately Pen Duick's engine is small and old and according to one of the crew could only drive them upwind at around 0.25 knots.

Their rescue attempt was compounded by a lack of communications equipment on board: this comprised a handheld VHF with a leaky battery. It was not until later in the morning after their search attempts had failed that they put up a red flare that was seen by Mike Slade's maxi Longobarda (en route to Ireland to take part in RORC Cork Dry Gin Round Ireland Race). Longobarda came alongside Pen Duick and could only communicate with the crew by shouting to them, made harder still by the Pen Duick crew's lack of English. The details were then relayed back to the Coast Guard who received it at 0700.

Tabarly was not wearing a lifejacket or a survival suit when he fell overboard. According to Chris Raley, Deputy District Controller of Milford Haven Coastguard this would normally mean a survival time of around four hours in the water, so it is probable that he may have already drowned by this time.

At the time Robin Raphael, Deputy Regional Controller at the Milford Haven Coastguard commented: "The sea is very lumpy out there. With winds of force 4-5, at around 18 knots. The conditions are very 'dirty' in which to help the crew. We have requested an RAF rescue helicopter 169 from Chivenor to assist... we have despatched the lifeboat to take the crew on board." A Royal Navy minesweeper and several commercial vessels also joined in the search and once the news had reached France president Lionel Jospin is believed to have a requested a French naval vessel to go to the scene. But there was no sign of Tabarly.

HM Coastguard in Milford Haven called off the search at lunchtime on Saturday, but the search was resumed later that afternoon at the request of the French authorities who despatched a French Air Atlantique aircraft from Lorient.

During the day, Angle, an all-weather lifeboat from Milford Haven had taken two crew off Pen Duick and put two of their own men on board to help the yacht to make port in Milford Haven. French and

Yachting World , 14 June 1998