Ellen MacArthur and Frenchman Alain Gautier capsized their trimaran whilst racing in the Challenge Mondail Assistance this week.

Competing in the race, their fast multihull overturned in fierce seas some fifty miles from Lisbon, Portugal, on its way to the Straits of Gibraltar.

The five members of the crew were safe and sound and were sheltering in the central cockpit when found.

But skipper Gaultier insisted that they required no assistance and he was organising the recovery operation of the multihull Foncia with his shore crew.

MacArthur and Gaultier have raced together in two-handed transatlantics in recent years and neither is stranger to catastrophy at sea.

Gautier, in fact, capsized less than twelve hours into the Transat Jacques Vabre in 1999.

Maritime police positioned Foncia and took all the necessary precautions to avoid possible collision with the upturned trimaran.

The boat was under gennaker and mainsail enjoying 25-knot speeds.

The crew on were surprised by the sudden acceleration of the boat, whose bows dug down and capsized forward.

At the time of capsize the boat was fifth in a highly-competitive fleet of twelve trimarans.