Brossard in Guernsey: The cause of the damage is a mystery

Brossard, skippered by Yvan Bourgnon and Charles Caudrelier, arrived at about midnight on Monday.

The trimaran got into trouble as an international rescue operation was under way to rescue the crew of three other yachts in the Atlantic.

The boats are racing in the Transat Jacques Vabre between Le Havre in France and Brazil.

Mr Bourgnon's brother Laurent went to meet him in a rescue boat at about 2100 GMT on Monday as the crew struggled to bail out.

Mr Bourgnon said: "He arrived right on time because we had to position the boat into the sea and we couldn't manoeuvre her by ourselves.

The whole boat was at risk as if the central hull had split in two, it would fold in on itself Yvan Bourgnon

"There are only a few centimetres which now hold the central hull by the beam, with a serious amount of water coming through the rupture, so we just had to keep pumping it out.

"The whole boat was at risk as if the central hull had split in two, it would fold in on itself and the mast would have fallen down."

"Happily, Guernsey was on our path. After that it would have been England, because we couldn't get to the nearest island of Contentin."

He said the cause of the split in the hull was a mystery.

"Even today we are still puzzled as to why this happened because the boat hasn't had any problems for two and a half years.

"We had thoroughly checked out the boat at the start of the season precisely to be certain that the structure was totally sound."