News

This morning (Friday 8th November 2019), shortly after 08:00 UTC, British skippers Alex Thomson and Neal McDonald arrived safely into the Cape Verde Islands onboard the HUGO BOSS yacht. The skippers, who had been racing in the 4,350 mile double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre race from Le Havre, France to Salvador, Brazil, were forced to retire from the race when their IMOCA 60 race boat, HUGO BOSS, hit an unknown object submerged in […]

Alex and Neal are safe and making good progress onboard HUGO BOSS. They are now around 300 miles away from the Cape Verde Islands, sailing with caution at around 10 knots. They have both managed to get some sleep and are focused on getting safely to land. Members of the Alex Thomson Racing technical team have arrived in Cape Verde and are preparing for the boat’s arrival. Further members of the team […]

Together with Alex and Neal, our technical team has today been evaluating a number of different options. The decision has been made that the safest course of action is for the skippers to sail to the Cape Verde Islands, around 800nm away from HUGO BOSS’ current location. Alex and Neal are currently sailing at up to 7 knots in light winds. They will continue to sail cautiously in a south easterly direction […]

Last night Alex and Neal were both able to get some rest onboard HUGO BOSS. In the early hours of this morning the skippers resumed their attempts to stabilise the keel. Despite their very best efforts, it became clear that keeping the keel attached would put the boat at great risk. With the keel attached only by the hydraulic ram, and in an unstable position, there was a serious risk of significant […]

British sailor Alex Thomson and co-skipper Neal McDonald forced to retire from Transat Jacques Vabre after hitting object in the water Skippers are continuing to work to stabilise the boat in order to sail safely, without assistance to the nearest port Britain’s Alex Thomson and his co-skipper Neal McDonald have been forced to retire from the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre, the team’s debut race onboard the new HUGO BOSS boat. […]

This morning (Sunday 3rd November 2019) 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. At this stage, it is not clear what they hit. 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 now only attached by […]

Alex Thomson Racing (HUGO BOSS, IMOCA) is currently managing a developing incident which occurred during the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre race. We ask that members of the public, and the media, refrain from attempting to contact the team during this period. A further update will be released shortly.

The northern pack have now reached the ridge of high pressure. The wind in this area will be very light and inconsistent. The key for all six boats in this pack – including Alex and Neal on HUGO BOSS – will be to keep moving and maintain some apparent wind because as soon as they stop, it will be hard to get going again. This will be clear when you look at […]

There was a change in the weather models this morning. The impact on the routing is that the western option is not looking quite as favourable. The ridge of high pressure has moved, blocking the southerly route down to the trade winds. As you would have seen this morning on the tracker, the westerly group tacked and started heading south east towards the southern group. As a result, the westerly group have […]

Alex and Neal are now committed to the western route onboard HUGO BOSS. Over the coming days, it will appear on the race tracker that the boats which took the southerly course are further ahead, ticking more miles off towards the finish line. However if we consider the long term effect in the Atlantic, when we look at the weather models the boats to the south could face light upwind conditions over […]