Team SEB has received a protest from the VOR Race Committee. The protest relates to the damage SEB inflicted on herself when colliding with illbruck at the beginning of leg five. A jury hearing is scheduled for today (Saturday).

Shortly after having crossed the finishing line in Miami, illbruck’s skipper John Kostecki stated that they were not going to lodge a protest against SEB. The SEB crew directly after the collision admitted their fault and took the customary penalty for the incident by doing a 720-degrees turn.

“We made a stupid mistake and we accepted our fault immediately. We had no intention to come that close to illbruck, but did so anyway due to a misunderstanding in our onboard communication. Illbruck has accepted our way of taking the penalty.” commented skipper Gurra Krantz.

Instead the race’s own Race Committee is now protesting Team SEB for inflicting ‘serious damage’ to their own boat. There is no definition of ‘serious damage’ in the rules, however if the jury find that the race committee’s protest is feasible this may, in worst case, mean a disqualification of SEB on this leg.

“We do not see our bow ‘seriously damaged’. There was no danger for the boat or the crew and we performed well and finished in fourth place.” Gurra Krantz says.

SEB crossed the finishing line as fourth boat, just four hours behind the winning boat on this 4,500 miles fifth leg, between Rio de Janeiro and Miami.

The protest will be heard in Miami at 11:00 local Time this morning.