Sailing: Calamity at dawn as three capsize in testing Transat

The 36-year-old from Cahirdaniel, who lives in Port la Forêt, was reported to have a broken clavicle and damaged ribs after his co-skipper Armel Le Cleac'h told race organisers and the maritime rescue service at Falmouth that Foncia had capsized when lying second off the coast of Brittany.

This is the second time Foncia has capsized and been the subject of a major rescue operation. In 2001, with Ellen MacArthur co-skippering alongside Alain Gautier in the Challenge Mondiale Assistance race from Cherbourg to Rimini, the trimaran flipped over off the coast of Portugal.

Also rescued after surviving 45-knot winds and 25-foot waves were the French pair Thomas Coville and Jacques Vincent after a dismasting, and the Swiss brothers Esteve and Yvan Ravussin when Project Orange capsized. Yvan Bourgnon and Charles Caudrelier had already retired hurt to Guernsey, leaving six of Sunday's 10 starters still racing to Salvador da Bahia in Brazil.

But all the monohulls continued to race hard, with Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron, in a more southerly position, taking over the lead from MacArthur and Roland Jourdain.