An exotic visitor arriving as deck cargo on the container ship Safmarine Nokwanda on February 12, presented the first opportunity for a closer look at the damage to the VO65 yacht  Vestas 11th Hour Racing.

he yacht, with a crew of nine, struck a fishing boat 30 miles from Hong Kong on January 20 at 1.

3am local time.

estas 11th Hour Racing was in second place and closing on the finish of the fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean race.

t was sailing at 20 knots in 23 knots of breeze when the collision occurred.

he collision sank the fishing boat and killed one of the ten crew, who were thrown into the water.

ther media reported that three fishing boats were involved in the incident with two being well lit and visible to the Vestas 11th Hour Racing crew.

he third was unlit, with Vestas 11th Hour Racing striking the boat’s wheelhouse.

o details have been officially released regarding the incident, which is still under investigation.

estas 11th Hour Racing was unloaded at Sulphur Point and trucked to Auckland, where the intention is to repair the yacht in time for the March 18 departure of the fleet on stage seven of the race from Auckland to Itajai in Brazil.

he port side is ripped in places down to the core laminate, which can only be repaired by building a new port topside and bow section and then marrying that into the existing hull.

ecause of the strict one-design rule for the Volvo Ocean Race, a new bow section was built from existing moulds at Persico Marine in Italy and transported to Auckland.

he plan is to remove damaged parts of the hull and attach the new section under the supervision of an independent surveyor to adhere to the class rules.