Team SEB’s shore team are currently working round the clock to ensure the 28m mast gets to the stricken vessel as soon as possible.

The shore team’s preparations have included extremely detailed travel plans for the new mast to get from Gothenburg in Sweden to meet the boat ‘somewhere’ in South America. First, it had to travel to the nearest major port in Sweden on a specially lengthened truck, where it was loaded onto a ship bound for Zeebrugge in Belgium. From the container port its onward travel will again be by truck to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. That is the easy bit. From this point the dilemma for speed of travel is whether it will be quicker to get the mast to the boat or the boat to the mast.

The first option to get the mast to the boat, will involve a 747 flight for the mast to Buenos Aires in Argentina. From there, the only option is another aeroplane, as trucking in that region of South America is not possible due to the mountainous terrain and the poor quality of the roads. This would be the preferred route forward for the sailing and shore teams, but it could prove difficult to find a large enough plane to freight the rig, which is still able to land on limited runway space.

The second option to get the boat to the mast, would involve flying the mast into Rio, the finish port for this leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. A cargo ship would then be diverted to Ushauaia to pick up the SEB and she would then arrive into Rio on a ship after a trip of approximately one week.

Position Report, Day 13, 0956 GMT

1 ILBK

2 AONE (24 miles from leader)

3 TYCO (29 miles from leader)

4 AART (58 miles from leader)

5 NEWS (73 miles from leader)

6 DJCE (75 miles from leader)

7 TSEB (473 miles from leader)

8 ATOO (518 miles from leader)