The 15m-long vessel capsized off the Guernsey coast in treacherous seas in the early hours of Sunday with the two-person crew having to be rescued by helicopter.
The unmanned Koesio then drifted ashore on the shingle bank at the southern end of Perelle Bay later that morning.
The yacht was one of three Ocean Fifty trimarans that capsized on the first night of the transatlantic race, Transat Cafe L’Or, running from Le Havre to Martinique in the Caribbean.
Professional sailors Erwan Leroux, 51, and Audrey Ogereau, 33, were the only people on board the yacht when it flipped and they were airlifted from it.
Yesterday they returned to the beach to inspect the boat in the hope she could be refloated and towed, upside down, into St Peter Port.
‘It could have been so much worse,’ said Ms Ogereau.
‘We feel lucky to have the boat on the beach and not on the rocks. Just a little but further on and the boat would not be in one piece. The boat is damaged, but the hulls are intact.’
She described the experience as ‘scary’ and praised local and French coastguards which came to their aid.
‘The weather and waves were quite bad,’ she said.
‘I have never been involved in a capsizing like this. We have had the boat since 2021 and she has already done transatlantic three times.’
‘We think it was a combination of a big wave and a sudden shift in the wind. We were heading into the wind and suddenly it switched to behind and gusted from 18 to 40mph.’
The race started at 4.30pm in Le Havre and the yachts had been racing to get out of the Channel before even bigger winds predicted for Sunday night.
‘We were both on deck at the time and tried to hold on to the sheets [the ropes used to control the sails] but it was no good,’ said Ms Ogereau, who has previously taken part in the women’s version of the America’s Cup.
‘We went below and when the boat flipped we escaped through the safety hatch in the hull.’
After being airlifted to France, the pair, along with support crew, immediately caught the next ferry to Guernsey.
They spent Sunday afternoon working to move the boat, which has an estimated value of £3.5m., further up the beach to relative safety using cranes.
Local company Bob Froome & Sons arrived on the beach at 1pm to assist with two diggers, which were used as cranes to lift the boat.
‘The actual moving of the boat only took an hour,’ said joint managing director Roger Froome.
‘For its size it’s actually relatively light at just over 3 tonnes. I spoke to the lady who had been on board when it capsized just hours before and asked if it had been scary and she just shrugged her shoulders. She seemed to just take the whole thing in her stride.’
Although the three hulls were undamaged, the boat’s mast had been split in two and carried to the top of the beach. Ms Ogereau said they had managed to save most of the sails and smaller equipment.
‘With good weather and a high tide we will re-float, tow her upside down to St Peter Port and then flip with a crane onto her good side,’ said Ms Ogereau.
‘Then re-equip and head back to La Rochelle.’
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