High speed and foiling dramas aren't confined to San Francisco. The International C-Class Catamaran Championship has been producing some hairy moments as well and, yesterday, a remarkable rescue.

The International C-Class is an antecedent of the big wingmasted America's Cup cats, and like the AC72s have foils and wingmasts (indeed the championships have always been known as the Little America's Cup). Unsurprisingly, then, they have been attracting some top multihull sailors who have not found a place at the Cup, including French maestro Franck Cammas.

Yesterday, Cammas produced a demonstration of skills well beyond the normal scope of inshore racing when he rescued his crewman from the water and went on to finish 2nd. Picture this:

Cammas, who had won all four races of the regatta, was reportedly hitting 22 knots in 8 knots true on the final run of race five, when his crewmember Louis Viat's trapeze wire broke and Viat fell overboard.

As Viat went over, the trampoline broke and the mainsheet paid out, wrapping around his leg and towing him behind. He was injured before the sheet eventually parted.

With his crew and wingsail control sheet gone, Cammas immediately took stock and grabbed the wing of his boat Groupama C to operate it and allow him to turn back to rescue Viat.

"I could only play the wing sail by hand, like a windsurfer," Cammas explained.

Cammas managed get back to his crewman, pick him up and the pair continued racing to to finish 2nd out of five boats, despite having no trapeze wire, wing sheet or intact trampoline.

Beat that for skill and sang froid.