Big scare for three sailors during a long-distance delivery.
Leaving the Philippines for the Mediterranean on Florence Arthaud's former trimaran Pierre 1er, with which Philippe Poupon will take part in the next Route du Rhum, the crew was attacked by pirates off the coast of Yemen.
Tracked by two fast boats, he first saw an individual boarding with a Kalashnikov.
“
And there, something is happening
, tells the Telegram Maurice Uguen, responsible for the repatriation of the boat to France.
The wind comes in and the boat picks up speed and suddenly accelerates.
The pirates didn't quite understand what was going on because they weren't used to seeing boats sailing so fast.
Suddenly, they drop the case but another boat, longer and faster than the first, comes back on the trimaran with this time, seven men on board, all equipped with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers... They are more aggressive, are much more threatening
".
Bullet in the mast
The attackers did not hesitate to fire, a bullet lodged in the mast.
Despite the threats, the owner of the boat Philippe Brillault did not let it go.
“
Philippe is an emergency doctor, he is used to seeing things that ordinary mortals do not see, so he answered the pirates who seemed taken aback because, usually, when they take a boat hostage, the hostages flatten immediately.
There, obviously, this was not the case
, ”continues Maurice Uguen who immediately warned the Navy.
Faced with the arrival of a helicopter, from an Italian frigate, and a special forces boat, the pirates took to their heels.
If the owner of the boat, the Filipino sailor and the other skipper present on board are safe and sound, the winning trimaran of the 1990 Route du Rhum has suffered damage.
Escorted to Djibouti, she will be the subject of an inventory before heading back to sea. Once brought back from the Mediterranean to Brittany by Philippe Poupon, she will start work at Mer Agitée, in Port-la-Forêt, in view of the departure of the Rhum, on November 6th in Saint-Malo.
