…with 30 knot winds off Finisterre the seas were as big and awkward as he could remember, only the second time he could recall not being able to stand up on the foredeck of his Open 60, and having to work on his hands and knees.

“I came as close as I ever have in my entire life to getting run down. It was the closest I have ever been to a ship which was not at anchor I think. An under arm throw with a tennis ball and I could have put it on its deck. I called him up and he obviously had not seen me and it took him five minutes to respond, and then when he did respond I said ‘what are you going to do?’ and he came back and said he was going to ‘turn to starboard and come down your starboard side’.

“I thought that was rather odd, ‘cos if he had turned to port he would have gone under our stern which would have been a much better thing to have done. He did an alteration to starboard which was big but it was not big enough, and I got headed and it finished up with us bow to bow and an angle of about 90 degrees and I baled out.

“I dumped the traveller all the way down because there was about 30 knots of breeze [so]… the boat would not bear away, and as I crouched down to see I could see he had turned as well. I had no idea that a ship that size, 160 metres, could turn so quickly and the bow was blown around and I saw his nav lights change underneath the boom, then I pushed the buttons on the pilot to come back up again, we both turned into each other effectively. Anyway I missed him.

“He came under my stern and I called him up and said: ‘that was rather close wasn’t’ it?’ and he went absolutely berserk, and I thought which bit of the rules of the road have I not understood whereby you are supposed to get out of the way and I call you and ask what you are going to do, you tell me and you still end up hitting me.”

That would have been a horrible way to finish up, after all Steve has done in this race.

Stamm said he was with a bunch of competitors, and saw the fishing boat. Her course and position were not a concern when he went below, but a few minutes later he hit her nearly amidships. Presumably it was a glancing blow, or his boat would have been more severely damaged and he would have been thrown hard against something solid. He was unable to raise the fishing boat on the radio, but they can hardly have failed to  notice being hit by a boat doing about ten knots and weighing about 15 tons.

So far, I have seen no mention of the fishing boat. To be working in the Bay of Biscay in moderate seas, it must have been fairly large, so unlikely to have suffered crippling damage – but I hope, with the kind of money that is being  spent on this race, that someone considers it his duty to track the fishing boat down and check that all is well. If nothing else, there’ll be an insurance claim…

Meanwhile, let’s hope the shore team manage to repair Stamm’s bowsprit quickly and send him off again in pursuit of the fleet.