Wild scenes off the Portuguese coast: 70-year-old Frenchman Phep Philouceros was on his way to northern France in his sailing yacht when he was attacked by a group of orcas. The incident occurred off the coast of Cabo de São Vicente in southern Portugal. According to his own statement, his rudder was destroyed within a few moments by the group of five animals, causing him to lose his manoeuvrability and alert the coastguard. They were on the scene within a quarter of an hour and took the skipper's yacht in tow. What was particularly worrying was that even during the half-hour journey to Sagres, the six to seven metre-long orcas did not leave the yacht.
The orca attack in the video:
According to official estimates, several hundred yacht rudders have been destroyed by killer whales off the Iberian Peninsula since summer 2020 and three boats have been reported as "sunk due to orca interaction". Unofficial estimates are much higher in both cases. However, the Franco-Spanish marine biologist Renaud De Stephanis recently wrote in a YACHT interview reported the decline in figures since April 2023.
Boris Herrmann's Malizia team had also already Contact with the killer whales : An incident occurred during the transfer of their "Malizia - Seaexplorer" to Lorient. The animals, also known as killer whales, accompanied the boat for almost an hour, but there was no serious damage and the transfer crew was also unharmed.
Already during The Ocean Race it was interactions with participants but only racing yachts in the VO65 class were involved. The frightening encounter with the killer whales took place west of Gibraltar in the Atlantic. The teams affected were Jajo from the Netherlands and Mirpuri Trifork Racing from Portugal. Both crews reported afterwards that there were no injuries or damage to the boat, although the orcas crashed into the yachts and in one case also rammed the boat and bit into the oars.
It is still not clear why such interactions occur in the first place. There are also several theories about the optimal behaviour in an emergency:
