Skipper Kevin Escoffier stepped off his jury-rigged boat in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday afternoon.
Escoffier announced Team Holcim-PRB would abandon leg 4 to focus on being able to rejoin the race in time for the transatlantic leg from Newport to Aarhus.
According to the team, In the best case scenario, Holcim-PRB will be in Newport on May 18. The team will then have just over 48 hours to rig the boat and finish preparing it for the return trip to Europe.
The team had dismasted on Thursday, the fourth day of leg 4 and has been sailing slowly towards Rio ever since.
The transatlantic leg 5 of The Ocean Race is a double-point scoring leg and Escoffier says the team must focus on being ready for this to maintain a chance at winning the overall race. Team Holcim-PRB sits atop the overall leaderboard.
With the assistance of GAC Pindar, the official logistics provider of The Ocean Race, Team Holcim-PRB has worked through numerous options to get a mast from Europe to the boat in either Rio or Newport. Today, the team decided Newport was the most realistic option.
In a statement, Team Holcim-PRB said its shore team members, with the help of the sailors, will prepare the IMOCA boat to be loaded onto a cargo ship that could set off as early as Tuesday to head for Newport. It will take about 16 days at sea to reach the American port.
At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, the mast will be loaded onto another cargo ship. The crossing will last 7 days and the mast could be unloaded between May 9 and 10 in Newport.
Related post:
The Ocean Race – Team Holcim-PRB working to get boat and crew to safety
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