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Rudder shudder slows MacArthur
LONDON, England (CNN) – British skipper Ellen MacArthur has damaged her rudder after hitting an object at high speed in her bid for the round-the-world Jules Verne Trophy. Despite Tuesday's accident, MacArthur, sailing Kingfisher2, was only 30 minutes behind the trophy record set by Bruno Peyron in Orange in 2000. However, she was lagging 50 hours behind her rival Olivier de Kersauson in Geronimo. The accident happened on day 21 of her attempt as the catamaran was sailing at 24 knots, the team's official Web site said. "During the night suddenly there was a loud bang, and the boat shuddered...we had hit something with the starboard rudder," MacArthur said. The crew checked for damage and made minor repairs. "It appears not to be a major problem, thankfully. We don't know what it was, but hitting any object at speed is always a concern." Kingfisher2 had been speeding along for about five days, but calmer weather had slowed the boat on Wednesday. One of the 13-member crew, Neal McDonald said the yacht was very lucky not to suffer serious damage. "First thoughts are, you could be sinking here -- a major concern -- but we ascertained that we weren't and then checked the whole boat for damage. In retrospect we were very lucky." Meanwhile, Geronimo has had to take a longer route than preferred after the unexpected presence of icebergs on their route to Cape Horn. The trimaran was 789 miles from the cape. The yacht had a close encounter with a 300-metre long iceberg last Friday. The iceberg was not picked up by satellite although a longer iceberg to the north of the yacht was detected. "The only method available for assessing the presence of ice therefore remains seawater temperature," the team's Web site said. As the water temperature on their preferred route was too cold, they had altered their route.
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