At 3.30 GMT this morning movistar (Bouwe Bekking) was about to be craned back into the water. She is now motoring back down the Beagle Channel and has 34 miles to go before returning to the spot where she suspended racing and her leg can resume to Rio.

As the team suspected, the fairing between the keel and the hull had broken off and this is how the water leaked into the boat. Once the boat was out of the water in Ushuaia, the team was able to see that there was also some light damage to the rudder and the hull, which was almost certainly caused by the fairing breaking off. The team has carried out repairs which will get them to Rio de Janeiro, where they will carryout a more rigourous investigation and a repair will be done to bring the boat back up to optimum condition for the next leg of the course.

“We will be sailing with the keel halfway so as not to exert too much pressure around the area until we are able to perform more in-depth repairs,” explained skipper Bouwe Bekking. “Obviously, in these kinds of conditions, our speed will be a lot slower than the rest of the fleet, but we should be in Rio by March 13th,” he added.

The race office was also informed that movistar has withdrawn both protests against ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) which were submitted ashore during the stopover in Wellington and one after the re-start in Wellington.

For the rest of the fleet racing towards Rio de Janeiro with just over 1000 nautical miles to run, it has been another 24 hours of smooth sailing. The dreaded slow passage through the ridge of high pressure yesterday did not materialise and the fleet managed to keep moving. The whole fleet tacked late last night, but the order remains unchanged as they head towards the coast, 700 miles to their west. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) continues to sail consistently faster than the chasing pack and has extended her lead to 45 miles, from ABNAMRO TWO in second place.

Share or bookmark this story: