The team, which left the severely damaged yacht on Sunday night, searched 90 square miles of ocean where they believe the yacht could be, but with extensive cloud cover and a mix-up over flight arrangements hindering efforts, time is now running out for a positive outcome.

Campbell Field, moviestar's shore manager and head of the retrieval effort, said; "obviously as time goes by the probability of getting the boat back is diminishing.

We are not searching as such right now, just planning the next course of action. Now, from here on in, we are purely waiting for the underwriters and representative surveyors to see if they want to action another search because these things are not cheap. How much do they want to spend to get it back? That's the issue ?

There are two or three different things that might have happened Field said. "If the keel has gone for good then it will still be afloat but upside down. It could be afloat, but up to its gunnels. Or, it could have sank. Pure speculation.

He refuted, however, that if the boat has sunk to the bottom of the ocean it has taken with it the mysteries of its failing keel? He said; "we have a lot of good images that were taken onboard. We have spent hours poring over photographs and drawings of what has happened. We have gone right back through the history of everything that has happened to that area of the boat. We have the facts of what happened, we can go the road to a certain extent about deducing why it happened. But being able to inspect the boat would increase our confidence in the understanding?"

Russel Bowler says "he is absolutely devastated by the movistar keel damage which forced the crew to abandon ship last Sunday, but admits the reasons behind the repeated failures may never be known."

Bowler, whose Farr Yacht Design company designed the Spanish yacht, is in Portsmouth consulting with the team to try and figure out what caused the critical damage to the boatt's keel, but suggested the bonding between critical components of the keel may have been responsible.

He said; "absolutely devastated with what has happened to the boat in the last few days. We are here to try and talk to the crew and figure out what went wrong. It's just very difficult to figure out what went wrong at the moment. ìThere are a number of parties (responsible). Obviously we designed it, and our design is completely open to scrutiny. In fact Bouwe (Bekking, the movistar skipper) at the start of this project called in SP Engineering who reviewed all the drawings as well. We have had the best in the business look at the drawings before the boat was built and we have got nothing to hide in terms of the design and the way it was analysed and detailed. We will put that on table for anyone to look at."

The severe weather which plagued the Volvo Ocean Race Fleet all across the Atlantic Ocean has continued to cause problems during the stopover in Portsmouth. Strong, gale force winds have battered Gunwharf Quays over the last ten days as a strong low pressure area remained stationary over the northeast Atlantic, sending a steady stream of troughs and fronts through the English Channel. Finally, after one last push of breeze on Friday and Saturday, the stormy weather is expected to ease off by Sunday, bringing a relatively docile weather pattern just in time for the In Port race on Monday afternoon.

May 25, ABN AMRO TWO arrives in Portsmouth, ABN AMRO has posted an incredible video about the events of the last week, including some footage on the moviestar crew rescue, well worth the downloading time - Click here for ABN site and at ABN - click on 'ABN AMRO TWO arrives in Portsmouth

May 24, Bouwe Bekking on the position of movistar. Right now we actually don't have a position on the boat. The last position was more than a day ago and we had a beacon but that disappeared at ten o'clock on Sunday night so that's very bad news. The weather conditions improved today so much that we are able to send out a plane so we can get a visual sight on the area where the last position was known. There's an aeroplane right now on the way. The skies are relatively clear and the seas have slowed down a little bit and there is now six to seven metres of swell over there. So the boat will be pretty hard to spot but this is the first thing we are doing. A search and rescue vessel is on standby so as soon as the boat is spotted, that boat will take off and try to savage her.

I hope the boat is still upright. I really have my doubts about it because of the damage and the amount of water which was coming in at such a rate and that was in quite fair conditions. Yet when the whole thing started it was 25 knots, and when ABN AMRO TWO picked us up it was 10 - 15 knots. But the seas were getting higher and higher and especially with the forecast and we know there have been 10 metre waves and fifty knots plus wind. So I have serious doubts the boat will be still be afloat. If not I think the keel may have fallen off and the boat flipped upside down.

How the next couple of days will go we will have to wait to see. If they see the boat today, we will make a couple of decisions over the next few days as we have 25 people over here working for our team. There are families over here and of course we have obligations to our sponsors.

Bouwe Bekking on the decision to abandon movistar: First I would like to really thank the movistar organisation in supporting the decision I have taken.

It a huge disappointment especially for myself as I wanted to win this race and I think it was the same for all the guys behind me. It's just been fantastic during the entire campaign with movistar's support and as well as a special thanks to the ABN TWO guys. They were in a very tough situation and they did a fantastic job to get us safely here.

I don't think we will race this boat again even if we get her back. So some of us will come to Rotterdam, because there are some containers over there and of course we will show up at the final prize giving in Gothenburg to show our respect for all the other competitors in this race. And hopefully we will be back, all of us are sailors.

Bouwe Bekking on the difference in safety gear from when Drum capsized in 1985: I think the difference first of all is we are 21 years further on and the sport has become so much more professional and all the procedures which are in place make this sport as safe as possible. In 1985 I did the Fastnet Race on Phillips Innovator and so I know exactly what the differences are and there were no safety precautions. We had a life raft but that was about it. We didn't have any training we didn't know what was going on. We basically didn't have a clue and although Drum was maybe one of the most professional crews at that time, I think they were very lucky to survive. Of course I have had a lot of experience over the last 20 years. And we had some of our ordeals on this race as well. Our crew was very well drilled but of course I personally had to make the final call to abandon ship.

Bouwe Bekking on the emotions of leaving movistar: It's pretty tough. I had the hardest time last night when ABN came in because then I realised that these were the guys which brought us home.

I have been working on this project of three years. All the other guys have been working on it for two years as well and it's really hard to make it successful. We've had a lot of down sides but we've always come back but the moment we stepped off movistar I realised that this was not something we could come back from. This was the end of the race. So it sinks in and I will think a lot more in the next couple of days, but it hit like a hammer.

Bouwe Bekking on the preparation of movistar: As everybody knows we have sailed half way round the world before even the race started, but we never had any serious problems. Only blowing out a pad eye [a small deck fitting] or something like that. We were 100% confident in the boat and in the first leg we had some structural issues and we had to retire from leg one. Then on the second leg we had some ram issues then everyone knows we had quite a nice leg into Wellington where we actually had a win and in general we were going very fast and I think that the boat was very competitive but we didnít score a lot of points basically because of all the retirements.

The current situation even with all the retirements and the problems we have had, we are currently still in third place. So we can look at ourselves and look the guys in the eyes and think that we have achieved quite a lot. Coming back to the damage, we knew as well that we had some issues just before Cape Horn where the boat nearly sank and that is one of the things that comes back in our minds when on Saturday we had the problems with the keel again. What do you do at that stage? What do we do when it gets really bad and the pumps can't keep up anymore.

We had a long chat in Baltimore and everyone knew that the Atlantic can be very tough and we were 100% confident when we left New York for this leg. And at the moment it happened, everybody looked at each other and said ëhere we go again'.

There were no hard feelings in that sense it was just a matter of getting the boat home and when I came to that final moment, we had a lot of correspondence with race headquarters as well as with ABN TWO just in case the decision was made that we get off.

So all in all everything went very well. It was very relaxed and we have the entire procedure on video. You'll see from there that everything went very smoothly and professionally, but once I decided to abandon ship I gave all the responsibilities in that sense to Sebastien (Josse) on ABN TWO because we were in their hands. And that communication has been really good.

First of all we were all feeling quite relieved and I can speak for myself saying that when I jumped into the life raft I knew that was really it and that was the moment we were really leaving the ship and I felt really happy I made that decision at that stage. So when I got on to ABN TWO, my first thing was to go over to Sebastien and all the guys individually and thank them as we understood as a group it was very hard for them to come back for us in the situation that they were in and we were very grateful to see our old mates back even though they are younger than us.

And it was a very welcome feeling. We could see in the first couple of hours when we got on they were very down and not very happy but during the next 18 hours I saw them cheering up as a crew and we were a little bit of a distraction for them. So I think it worked out very nicely for them. We could see how energetic and how good the team is and we spoke afterwards when we drove back from Falmouth to Portsmouth in a bus.

Stuart Bannatyne: Basically when we boarded ABN AMRO TWO Sebastien made it pretty clear to us that they wanted to carry on sailing the boat and we could help out a little bit by making them coffee and the occasional meal, but they wanted to keep their watch system going and sail the boat and obviously I expected that. I know a few of our guys spent some time on deck enjoying sailing with these guys, doing a bit of grinding now and again and helping out but basically those guys sailed there own boat and carried on their own watch system and we had a little watch system within ourselves to share out our sleeping bags and quarters below.

Chris Nicholson: I wouldn't say it was a relief to see movistar go, more disappointment that she finally got the better of us. We went through a lot of hard times with this boat and a lot of breakages and we always bounced back obviously this was one we couldn't come back from.

Bouwe Bekking on the Volvo Open 70: I think we are still a development class and the other thing you have to remember is we were the first Farr boat on the water and if you compare it with boats like the tri-marans I think there are far less disasters in these boats and I still have the general feeling that they are a safe boat even though our boat didn't make it. It is a development class and even on ABN TWO the boat had structural problems before the race started, they implemented them on the second boat and then on the first boat and unfortunately we didn't have that chance. The Farr office made some differences to the other Farr boats built after ours so you see they have less problems than us.

Mike Joubert: It was a unique opportunity for all of us to be able to sail a completely different concept boat (ABN AMRO TWO). It's always an interesting learning experience from different people especially when we have been together as long as we have. We haven't really sailed with anyone else and it was a great learning experience for us. Looking at their sail set up and how they sail the boat. It was a big eye opener personally.

Bouwe Bekking: I personally hope that we can keep sailing on these boats in future Volvo Ocean Races. I think all the sailors - at least myself - love these boats. They are fantastic to sail. One of the reasons we always come back to this type of sailing is because we love the ocean, but as well we like fast sailing and we like the company of all the guys so I personally hope we will stay with the Volvo Open 70. We know a lot of things have happened but designers are not stupid and they are all thinking and a lot of people are communicating with each other to see what we can do to make the boats safer for the future. So,even if the race is in three years time we have enough development time and feedback from all the teams and I think that next time we will have a second generation class and we won't have any problems anymore.

Chris Nicholson: I've always said I would do the race again and that hasn't changed at any point. And, believe it, I've actually enjoyed this race as it's come to it's conclusion. I hope I will be back.

Mike Joubert: These boats are incredibly brutal boats to sail, mentally and physically and, yes, emotionally. And there are a lot of hard times as everybody knows if I had the opportunity to sail with this crew again, I probably wouldn't think twice.

Bouwe Bekking: I never say never and as everybody knows this is my fifth race and I will do my best to do a sixth one as well.

May 23, The fate of Volvo Ocean Race yacht, movistar, which was abandoned in the Atlantic on Sunday, was unclear last night after two electronic position beacons left operating on board stopped sending signals. The ten-strong crew got off the Volvo Ocean 70, which is valued at $5 million (about £3.4m), at a position about 300 miles southwest of Land's End after structural failure around the keel left her in danger of sinking. The crew were picked up by ABN Amro Two, another boat in the race, which dropped them off in Falmouth yesterday, before continuing to the leg seven finish off Portsmouth, where she was due last night.

Bouwe Bekking, the movistar skipper, said that when he got off the stricken boat the keel was so "wobbly" that he feared that the two pumps left working might quickly become overwhelmed by the volume of water flooding in. He said the Argos and Satcom C beacons had stopped transmitting at about 10pm on Sunday, indicating that power from the batteries that were driving the pumps had ceased. "There is a big question mark over the boat," Bekking said.

With Movistar left to fend for herself in winds of more than 50 knots and ten metre-high seas, she may have sunk. However, a more likely scenario is that the keel has dropped out of the boat, causing her to flip over, which would allow Movistar to remain afloat. Her fate may not be known for several days, with salvage attempts not expected to begin until at least today or tomorrow - Edward Gorman, London Times Sailing Correspondent For complete story click here

May 22, At 0837 GMT this morning (Monday) off the English coast near Falmouth, the body of Hans Horrevoets was transferred to a Royal Netherlands Naval frigate from ABN AMRO TWO.

In winds of 25 knots, French skipper Sebastien Josse and his crew bid an emotional farewell to their much loved friend and team mate, holding a minute's silence as Hans was taken off ABN AMRO TWO in a RIB to the Dutch frigate, HNLMS Van Galen. His body will now be taken back to his home town of Terheijden, in the Netherlands for repatriation and a funeral with family and friends. The transfer was achieved without any problems and ABN AMRO TWO resumed racing en route to Portsmouth.

The HNLMS Van Galen is a multipurpose frigate of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The ship, with her 150 crewmembers, was in the area for six weeks training with the British Royal Navy. Speaking from ABN AMRO TWO, British navigator Simon Fisher added, "It was a sad moment to see Hans leave the boat, but also a relief that he can now go home to his family. The last few days have been incredibly tough on everyone, but we are determined to cross the finish line as part of this race. We will finish this leg for Hans. Although conditions remain difficult, the crew is doing well, and we are of course all looking forward to seeing our friends and family back on land."

Just prior to Hans Horrevoets being transferred off the boat, the crew of movistar also left ABN AMRO TWO and returned to shore in Falmouth. This transfer was completed at 8.15 GMT. Bouwe Bekking's crew had been rescued by Seb Josse's men when the Spanish boat was abandoned because of keel problems and deteriorating weather. The movistar crew are now all safely back on dry land and heading for Portsmouth.

Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Glenn Bourke, who was in Falmouth earlier today, said: "We are hugely indebted to Seb Josse and the crew of ABN AMRO TWO for their heroic role in the safe recovery and delivery of the movistar crew members to Falmouth. It can't have been easy for Seb and the guys in the tragic circumstances in which they found themselves. It is measure of their courage and professionalism that they stood by the stricken movistar until the weather conditions allowed a successful transfer and then ensured their safe passage to Falmouth. It is a great relief to the ABN AMRO TWO crew that Hans is now on the way to his homeland where his family and friends are waiting and our thoughts are with them at this moment."

Speaking of movistar, Bourke commented, 'I was immensely impressed with how level-headed and rational Bouwe Bekking remained throughout the whole process of abandonment and rescue. He took the agonising decision to abandon movistar and only he knows how tough that was. A hard call at the right time and always with the welfare of his crew as his priority. I would like to extend my gratitude to the British and Netherlands Royal Navy, the Falmouth Coast Guard and the other rescue organisations for the expert manner in which they have dealt with the entire rescue operation," he concluded.

ABN AMRO TWO resumed racing at 09:54 GMT today (Monday) finally crossing the finish line 1908 GMT, 2008 local time (Monday), scoring two points and finishing in sixth position. The young crew of international sailors, led by French skipper Sébastien Josse, wanted to finish the leg for Hans Horrevoets, their Dutch crew member who had died at sea in a tragic accident in the early hours of Thursday May 18. The families of all the crewmembers waited at the historic dockyard of Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth and there were emotional scenes as the tired sailors were reunited with friends and loved ones after what must have been one of the most difficult legs in the history of the race. In a show of support and compassion, the boat was welcomed by hundreds of well wishers involved in the Volvo Ocean Race, as well as the entire TEAM ABN AMRO.

May 20, Volvo Leg 7 Day 11, Sunday - movistar abandoned. The crew of the Spanish yacht, movistar (Bouwe Bekking) has abandoned the yacht and transferred the 10-man crew via life raft to ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Joss), which has been standing by since approximately 2200 GMT Saturday night.

The two boats are positioned 307 nautical miles west south-west of Land's End. The sea state is rough, but the wind has temporarily eased to seven knots, which has made the transfer of the crew easier. The weather is forecast to deteriorate and 40 - 50 knots winds are expected in the vicinity within the next four to six hours. The decision to transfer the crew and abandon movistar was made in the light of the extreme weather expected.

When asked for assistance, the Royal Navy responded immediately and HMS Mersey, a River class offshore patrol vessel built for UK fishery protection, has left Milford Haven in South Wales and is expected to rendezvous with ABN AMRO TWO in approximately eight hours' time and shepherd ABN AMRO TWO to the nearest coast.

Food and personal items were transferred with the crew of movistar and ABN AMRO TWO is equipped with two ten-man life rafts if required. Movistar has been left with her generator and Inmarsat Satcom C communications system running so that her position can be tracked as long as possible.

12:04 Sunday, Bouwe Bekking - skipper of moviestar; The hardest decision I ever taken in my life, was the call to abandon ship. This morning we gybed over to check how the keel would cope with that angle. Straight away we saw that the water intake nearly doubled and had to start the 2nd emergency pump. That made me realise that we were actually in way bigger trouble.

We had survived for nearly 24 hours, but in light winds and the seas had calmed down, but with a forecast of 35-40 knots and peeking up to 50, I just wasn't sure the boat would hold out. The breeze died more to around 6 knots and now the boat was rocking hard, and the seas became more confused. The keel pin started moving more as well, so in the end took the tough decision. 10 lives at stake, with a similar number of families, the right call.

Seb (Sebastien Josse - skipper of ABN AMRO TWO) and his crew have been fantastic over the last 24 hours. We all realised that turning around had been a very hard call for them, and hopefully they can find a little comfort that they have saved 10 lives. A boat is just a boat, you can replace it, but lives you cannot. Saying thank you is not big enough right now, it is more than that. I am sure we will have an even better friendship with them all.

Once the call was made, I spoke with Seb on the VHF and went through procedures. We decided to use one life raft, and move over safety gear/food/media equipment etc, etc. We slid the raft off the transom, and one person jumped in and collected all the gear. Then 4 people followed and we slipped them off. The transfer went perfectly and was done in a couple of minutes.

Then four went off and were pushed off again with Mikey Joubert still in it. This was planned, so we could motor over, and throw him a line, which went ok in the first attempt. I checked once more downstairs, had a final look and stepped on deck.

In the mean time the 4 others had slipped the 2nd life raft in the water, but didn't inflate it, as we wanted to keep it in one piece, so we had a 3rd life raft on ABN2, as Seb had requested. That was it. The boat was abandoned, and we were on our way to the ABN2. Had a short chat with Nitro (Noel Drennan), and how happy he was that we had got off. He could remember clearly Cape Horn in 50 knots, he couldn't imagine doing a transfer in these conditions. Seb drove his boat precisely besides our raft, and we could throw the line, and made the transfer in a whisker. I thanked him and his crew, and said how tough this must have been for them as well, especially after what they have been through.

So now here we are, onboard and on our way to England. Spoke with Seb and wants us to make ourselves at home. He would like to remain racing in the spirit of the rule, sailing with his own boys. Fair enough. There is no mirror onboard here, but if I could face myself, I know we have done everything possible -- Bouwe Bekking - skipper

The overall victory by ABN Amro One in the Volvo Ocean Race - with two legs still to come - has been over-shadowed by a loss of a life and Movistar's dramatic abandonment yesterday. Bouwe Bekking's crew were picked up by Seb Josse's ABN Amro Two aboard which the body of Hans Horrevoets is being carried. A Dutch naval vessel is expected to rendezvous with ABN Amro Two off the Cornish coast and Horrevoets' body sent back to Holland following Thursday's man-overboard tragedy. Bekking's crew will also disembark from ABN Amro Two, leaving Josse's grief-stricken team to complete the seventh leg from New York to Portsmouth later today.

It was the cruelest of circumstances that placed Josse's yacht closest to Bekking's when on Saturday at 5pm Movistar notified race headquarters of the failure of the rear hinge of their canting keel. By 9pm ABN Amro Two had been diverted. With a deep depression threatening 50-knot winds, the two skippers agreed around 9.30 am yesterday to grab the opportunity of low winds in the eye of the depression to shuttle Bekking's crew by life raft from Movistar on to ABN Amro Two. Carbon-fibre failures are sudden and Bekking's concern was that the violent action of a loose six-ton keel being thrown about by big Atlantic seas could be catastrophic. Movistar's generator was left running to power her pumps and satellite communication systems so that the yacht's position could be monitored. -- Tim Jeffery, the Daily Telegraph For complete story click here

Happier moments: Hans Horrevoats at Cape Town. Photo: ABN TWO

May 18, ABN AMRO TWO crew 'devastated'. Earlier this morning (Thursday), Hans Horrevoets (NED) was washed overboard from the deck of ABN AMRO TWO as they raced across the North Atlantic on their way to Portsmouth, UK, in leg seven of the Volvo Ocean Race. The young crew, who have sailed this boat so well, are devastated.

The boat was sailing downwind in 25 - 30 knots of wind under mainsail, fractional spinnaker and staysail. Sebastien Josse, skipper of ABN AMRO TWO, was at the helm, Hans was trimming the spinnaker sheet, Nick Bice, Andrew Lewis and Lucas Brun were also on deck. A wave washed back down the deck and when the water cleared Hans was no longer on deck.

"We are all devastated by the events that took place this morning and all our thoughts are for Hans' family," said skipper Sebastien Josse. "I would like to stress that throughout the whole man overboard procedure, the crew handled themselves calmly, professionally and with the utmost maturity. It is with deep regret that we were unable to resuscitate Hans," he commented.

ABN AMRO TWO navigator Simon Fisher explains what happened: "Immediately Seb hailed 'man overboard' and called everyone on deck while I remained below to put in place our man overboard procedures and GPS positioning. The spinnaker was immediately dropped, the staysail furled and the starboard dagger board lowered. The engine was switched on and we attempted to motor-sail back on a reciprocal course. Due to the strong headwinds it was decided we drop the main, and go under motor alone as it was difficult to maintain a direct course to the man overboard position.

"Once Hans was located, Simeon Tienpoint put on his dry-suit, harness and diving gear in order to assist in the recovery. Once back on board Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK was notified that we had a major medical emergency and asked to stand by. In the meantime Hans was moved downstairs. No pulse was found so CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) was initiated by the crew's medics George Peet and Nick Bice, assisted by Andrew Lewis, Lucas Brun and Luke Malloy, all of whom are medically trained for such emergencies. CPR was stopped at 0420 GMT."

Speaking from race headquarters, Volvo Ocean Race CEO Glenn Bourke said: "All of us at the Volvo Ocean Race are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Hans Horrevoets. At this time our thoughts are with Hans' family and friends, his fellow crew members and all the members of TEAM ABN AMRO. Ocean racing carries inherent risks and we do our utmost to minimize those risks with the mandatory safety equipment we have on board. However,when an accident like this occurs it is a shock to everyone associated with the race. The Volvo Ocean Race family is a close-knit community and we will all lend whatever support is needed at this tragic time."

ABN AMRO TWO at 1600 hrs GMT is 1345 nautical miles from Portsmouth. The boat is under sail and the crew are making their way towards landfall as quickly as possible where a decision will be made on their further participation in the race.

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