Smashed in two by a cargo ship

It is every sailor's worst nightmare. Crossing a busy shipping lane at night, at speed, to be crushed by a cargo ship. Clinging to the wreckage, the two skippers miraculously survived.

- Heather Prentice

'Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, the boat is cut in half. We've de-masted. Come and get us now.' This was the call that went out across the Class40 fleet racing off the coast of Ushant, northern France, on the night of 27 May.

The two skippers of racing yacht NST Cabinet Z, Cédric de Kervenoaël, 61, and Thomas Jourdren, 25, were huddled together on the starboard push pit at the stern of the yacht, the only part of the section that was out of the water. A helicopter from Brest arrived 40 minutes later to rescue them and miraculously they were unharmed apart from Cédric having four broken ribs.

One of the first big races of the season, the CIC Normandy Channel Race, had started on Sunday May 25. Faced with forecasts of up to 50 knots in the Celtic Sea, the race organisers had altered course to take the competitive Class40 fleet back across the Ouessant Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS, or DST in French). Although races frequently cross shipping lanes, this alteration meant the race would cross a TSS six times.