British boat, Hugo Boss, being sailed by Alex Thomson and Pepe Ribes of Spain has been dismasted off the coast of Brazil and is out of the Barcelona World Race.

The pair were leading the race and were favourites to win the 23,000-mile three-month non-stop round-the-world event, having broken several speed records since the start on New Year's Day.

Alex, who has repeatedly suffered from gear and boat failure during his racing career, recorded a video explaining exactly what caused the mast to fall down, which he posted on his Facebook page and his Youtube channel.


 

Alex reports: “I was looking backwards as Pepe was bringing a sail to me to plug in behind me and all of a sudden I saw this [the furling drum] just break. The drum just blew up in the air and the sail with it. I looked up and instinctively I knew the mast was going to fall down. It kind of hovered there for a few seconds and then fell backwards into the water. Within a couple of minutes the mast broke in two where it was hinged over the boat.

Alex Thomson out of the Barcelona World Race

Alex Thomson explains what went wrong aboard Hugo Boss in the Barcelona World Race.



"Pepe did a great job with the grinder cutting it away before the mast made a hole inside the boat in the big waves we had. It is extremely disappointing. We were leading the race by 60 miles, and had broken the record to Gibraltar. We felt we were in control of the race. Yes we had made a couple of minor mistakes, but really we were performing brilliantly. I am disappointed for our team, for Pepe, for all of us. It is heart wrenching when these things happen.”

www.facebook.com/AlexThomsonRacing

 

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