Hugo Boss is out of the Transat Jacques Vabre race after they hit something in the water. At this stage, it is not clear what they hit.
Sunday morning (3 November) at around 9:37am UK time, while Alex Thomson and Neal McDonald were sailing at around 25 knots onboard HUGO BOSS, they hit something in the water.
Following the incident, Alex and Neal stopped the boat and carried out an inspection to assess the damage sustained.
It became apparent that the keel is the now only attached by the hydraulic ram.
Due to the damage sustained to the boat, the decision has been made that Alex and Neal will not continue on in the race.
Both Alex and Neal are currently safe inside the boat and did not sustain any major injuries.
Both skippers were working with their technical team on the best destination. The newly-launched Hugo Boss is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, about 420 miles southwest from Madeira and 380 miles northwest of the Canary Islands.
Hugo Boss had completed just over a third of the 4,350-mile course of this biennial double-handed race to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil – the longest and toughest in the sailing calendar.