Pirates of the Caribbean skipper Paul Cayard says he will ship his stricken boat to South Africa in order to rejoin the Volvo Ocean Race. Pirates and rivals Movistar were damaged less than 24 hours after the start of the race on Saturday and both have been docked in Portuguese ports.
Pirates will now abandon the opening leg, which ends in Cape Town, for extensive repairs ready for stage two.
Movistar has yet to make a decision as to whether it will continue leg one.
The vessel, which suffered leakage around the keel of their boat Black Pearl, docked on Monday in Cascais, 18 miles west of Lisbon.
Cayard admitted he could have decided to patch up his boat in Portugal and completed the opening stage but decided to ship the boat for extensive repairs so the vessel is ready for stage two.
"This is a race on points not time," he said. "This is not the Tour de France, it is more similar to Formula One.
"Michael Schumacher may not even finish three or four of the 16 races and yet still win the World Championship.
"We are going to return to the race and I feel that we have a good chance to win this race.
"We could have put a bandaid on the boat, sailed for three weeks to Cape Town, arrived one day before the in-port race, and basically go into leg two, one of the most difficult legs of the race, not fully prepared.
"But we have decided ship the boat to Cape Town to do the repairs properly and proactively, sea trial the boat offshore for and enter the in-port race and leg 2 properly prepared."
Spanish entry Movistar was in Portimao on the southern Portuguese coast with a broken hydraulic ram on the keel system.
Premier Challenge of Australia, which had its boom damaged, was repaired in Porto Santo in the Madeira Islands early on Tuesday morning.
Seven yachts set sail from the Spanish port of Vigo on Saturday.
Ericsson won the opening in-port race in Galicia last week and lead the standings with 3.5 points from Brasil 1 (3 pts) and Pirates (2.5 pts).
From Cape Town, the fleet then sails eastward round the world in eight more legs, stopping off in Melbourne, Wellington, Rio de Janeiro, Baltimore, New York, Portsmouth, Rotterdam and Gothenburg.
MMIX
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