PRB sues for damage after Le Cam rescue
Vincent Riou’s sponsor PRB has decided to seek compensation for the uninsured damage and recovery costs which resulted from Riou clipping the keel of the upturned VM Matériaux when he rescued Jean Le Cam during the 2008/9 Vendée Globe. The cost of shipping PRB home and repairing the damage to her rig has been assessed at around 750,000 Euros, and PRB are seeking to sue whoever they can to recover this: the race organisers, VM Matériaux, even Jean Le Cam himself.
At first sight, this sounds as if America’s Cup attitudes have spilled over into round the world racing, but I believe the situation is totally different. America’s Cup litigation is all about a struggle between very rich and powerful men - PRB’s move may be about financial survival in the current economic crisis. PRB is a small business, and its recent sponsorship experience has been financially painful. It is behaving like a US company one step away from filing for Chapter Eleven protection from its creditors.
The problem is that the case is addressing a taboo subject. To quote Yachting World’s Elaine Bunting in her recent blog post:
This dispute is over who should bear the financial consequences of saving a life at sea, something that until now no-one has dared publicly place a price on.
The unspoken worry is that potential rescuers will become litigation-conscious in the same way as landlubbers, and ‘cross the street’ to avoid getting involved. A far cry from the attitude displayed by Captain Ferro, master of the 113,000 ton tanker Overseas Yellowstone, in the recent rescue of the 38-footer Fleur during a storm off the west of Ireland. As reported in the July 2009 issue of Yachting World
… he had never been involved in such an operation before, and was proud to have helped
This despite the fact that his own ship was in ballast, with seas rolling over her and putting his own crew at risk.
On the face of it, PRB doesn’t stand much chance. It made the commercial decision not to insure for anything other than total loss of the boat (as did many Vendée Globe competitors). Full insurance is available, but it’s expensive - for a very good reason.
My feeling is that, even if PRB were to win even partial recompense, the negative publicity would outweigh any temporary financial advantage. I can’t believe that they don’t know this. This could become a very sad affair.
