Groupe Bel, one of the boats competing in the solo, non-stop round-the-world yacht race the Vendee Globe that started on Saturday, was forced to pull out of the event Monday after a collision with a trawler.
Skipper Kito de Pavant, who was unharmed in the accident, has had to abandon the competition and steer his damaged yacht to the southern Portuguese port of Cascais less than 48 hours into the race that started in France.
“The 2012 Vendee Globe is over for me, for Groupe Bel, for all those people who have followed me in this adventure, it was a stupid accident, really stupid, I’m sorry,” de Pavant said in a video recording posted on the Vendee’s official website.
