The IMOCA 60 HUGO BOSS, which was abandoned in the singlehanded 2006-7 Velux 5 Oceans Race by Alex Thomson, has been found washed up ashore in Patagonia at the southernmost tip of South America. British skipper Alex Thomson, who had to be rescued from the yacht by competitor Mike Golding, had lost his keel some 1,000 miles from Cape Town in the Southern Ocean in November 2006. The section of the canting keel head that attached the rams snapped off so that the keel was swinging freely.
With the finding of the yacht, this translates to it travelling nearly 13,000 miles over 10 years across the Southern Ocean.
The yacht was found during a kayak expedition by Chilean adventurer Cristian Donoso, who is credited with taking this extraordinary photo too.
Whilst the hull appears to have survived, it is clear that the keel did detach from the hull. The cockpit area has also been destroyed and there are no signs of the mast or rigging either.
