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Hugo Boss Dismasted

Hugo Boss was the most modern of eight IMOCA 60s making a mad dash around the globe in the Barcelona World Race, and the winner of the last edition.

© 2015 Gilles Martin-Raget / Barcelona World Race

After leading the doublehanded Barcelona World Race for the better part of two weeks, Hugo Boss dismasted on Wednesday night in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 370 miles east of Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. The IMOCA 60 had already set a new record for the passage from Barcelona to Gibraltar in the Mediterranean and a course record to the equator.

Pre-race favorites Alex Thomson, a 40-year-old Brit, and Pepe Ribes, a 43-year-old Spaniard, estimated that they had extended their lead to about 60 miles when the rig came down in a moderate easterly and big seas.

Both sailors were on deck making a headsail change when they believe that the central pin in the headsail furling drum sheared, leaving the mast unsupported from the front of the boat. Thomson watched helplessly from the bow as the mast and sails fell backward. "I looked up and instinctively I knew the mast was going to fall down," he said. "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. 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."

Alex Thomson explained what happened in a video that can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=43xyggY00KY.

© 2015 Barcelona World Race

They are now motoring to Salvador de Bahia, making steady progress at about 6 knots, with enough fuel to get most of the way to port. Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam on Cheminées Poujoulat took over the lead in the nonstop around-the-world race, which started on New Year’s Eve. Guillermo Altadill and José Munoz on Neutrogena, who had been racing neck-and-neck with Stamm and Le Cam, have gone into ‘stealth mode,’ hiding their position from the competition and the rest of us. See www.barcelonaworldrace.org for more.

This morning’s position report shows Hugo Boss (black boat) headed for land.

© Barcelona World Race

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"We had a passage from hell after leaving Panama for Hawaii," reports Randal Barnhart, 69, of the Alaska-based Yankee Clipper Westwind.