Drum: Simon Le Bon, the Fastnet Rescue and the Whitbread

Drum brought Simon Le Bon into an offshore racing story that extended far beyond his fame as Duran Duran’s singer. In 1985, the maxi yacht lost her keel and capsized during the Fastnet Race. The crew survived, the boat was recovered, and the team went on to start the 1985–86 Whitbread Round the World Race.

The capsize and the subsequent round-the-world campaign are separate chapters. Understanding that sequence also helps distinguish Le Bon’s role as co-owner and crew member from the responsibilities of the yacht’s skipper, Skip Novak.

Simon Le Bon, the Berrow brothers and Skip Novak

During the 1985 campaign, Drum was co-owned by Le Bon and Mike and Paul Berrow. The connection attracted attention outside sailing, but the Whitbread remained a demanding offshore race requiring a working crew and extensive preparation.

The Ocean Race’s profile of Skip Novak identifies him as the skipper of the campaign. His role should not be confused with the construction of the yacht or the ownership of the project.

What happened to Drum in the 1985 Fastnet?

On 11 August 1985, Drum capsized after losing her keel off the Cornish coast. There were 24 people aboard. Le Bon and five other crew members were trapped in an air pocket inside the overturned hull.

The archive account accompanying BFI Replay’s contemporary report, Capsize of Drum, identifies Royal Navy search-and-rescue diver Larry Slater of 771 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Culdrose as the diver who brought the trapped sailors to safety. The report includes interviews with Le Bon and Slater after the rescue.

All the crew were rescued. The confirmed loss of the keel and the rescue can be described without turning an unsupported account of the construction process into a definitive technical explanation of the failure.

From recovery to the 1985–86 Whitbread

The damage did not end the project. Drum was recovered and repaired in time to join the Whitbread fleet. The race organiser’s history of the 1985–86 edition records the capsize and the team’s return to the start.

Novak’s organiser profile records third place in the maxi class. That description is more precise than calling Drum the overall winner or simply saying “third overall”: ocean-race accounts need to distinguish the relevant class and elapsed-time results from handicap rankings.

For the crew, reaching the start after the Fastnet was only the beginning of another challenge. The campaign then required the boat and team to complete a multi-leg voyage around the world, rather than a single recovery passage.

Archive footage and further reading

The BFI report provides a contemporary record of the capsize and rescue. It is a short news item, rather than the full documentary of the Whitbread campaign. Viewing access depends on the archive’s arrangements; the catalogue entry should not be taken as a guarantee of unrestricted online playback.

For more films about real voyages, racing and life at sea, see our selection of 15 sailing movies and documentaries. For the wider historical context, explore 15 famous sailors and their achievements.