Fixing a $6 million racing yacht after crashing onto a reef at 22 miles per hour is a bit more complicated than repairing your car after a fender bender. First of all, when you're stuck on a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean, it's hard to get anything done. And when your boat was specially designed and built by four companies in four different countries, coordinating a repair job isn't exactly like calling AAA.

It’s been more than a week since a Danish sailing team crashed onto a reef off Mauritius in the early stages of the Volvo Ocean Race, a 35,000-mile, around-the-world contest. The nine crew members of Team Vestas Wind were all rescued without injury, but their 65-foot racing yacht wasn’t so lucky. The 22 mph crash broke both its rudders, and days of being banged against rocks by the current have left a gaping hole in the stern.

Apart from wondering how some of the world’s best sailors, equipped with the best navigational tools available, smacked into a reef, the big question is whether Vestas Wind can get back into the race, and how.

The Volvo Ocean Race, which has been held roughly every three years since 1973, was originally called the Whitbread Round the World Race. The seven teams visit six continents, crossing oceans while packed into boats built with speed, not comfort, in mind. (Think brutal weather, no fresh food, no shower, one change of clothes, one tiny toilet, and the never-ending pounding of waves.) The race is deadly as well as uncomfortable: In 2006, Dutch sailor Hans Horrevoets died when he was knocked overboard into the North Atlantic.

The scoring system works like Formula One's: Each leg takes the boats from one city to another, with points awarded based on the finishing order. If a team doesn't finish any one leg, the only penalty is that it can't move up in the rankings, and it's welcome back whenever it can get to the starting line.

Race officials and Team Vestas Wind have so far said little about where things will go from here, but there are only three options: The team can fix its severely damaged boat. It can have a new one built asap. Or it can drop out of the race altogether.

Before leaving the area, Vestas Wind sailors salvaged what they could from the boat. Brian Carlin/Team Vestas Wind

Making It Like New

The need to repair a boat mid-competition is nothing new for the Volvo Ocean Race. On the first leg of the 2011-2012 edition, the mast of Puma Ocean Racing's boat snapped in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The team got it repaired in time for the next race, and eventually placed third overall. But the damage to Team Vestas' boat is more extensive.

The first steps in fixing the boat would be moving it to a shipyard and assessing the damage, says Chase Hogoboom, president of Goetz Composites, which has produced boats for past Volvo Ocean Races. A team sent in to remove the 12-ton boat could fill it with air bags to float it off the reef, then put it on a larger ship, possibly using a crane.

Based on photos of the wreck, there’s obvious damage to the stern (“it’s no longer there”), but because the boat was has been banging against rocks for more than a week, there could be other, less visible damage to its carbon fiber structure. The carbon fiber used in boats like these is analogous to a piece of cardboard, Hogoboom says, there’s a core with two pieces of “skin” on either side. The beating could have peeled away that skin, which would hurt the boat’s structural integrity.

One way to look for that damage is to warm the hull with a heat gun, then use thermal imaging to look for discrepancies: If everything cools down at the same rate, it’s all good. Damage would leave pockets of air or water in the structure, which lose heat at a different pace. The less high tech method is simple: Tap the structure with a metal screwdriver or knife, the way you look for studs behind a wall. Damaged areas will produce a different sound than undamaged ones.

Structural damage isn’t the only concern. Bad things happen to a boat when you rip off part of the hull and put it in salt water. Aluminum parts like winches and other hardware could be badly corroded, Hogoboom says, and the extensive electrical systems used for navigation and communication could be damaged. All that might need to be replaced.

*Here's video from the moment of the crash and it's aftermath. If you've ever wondered what "curse like a sailor" means, watch it to find out. *

The good news is that putting in fresh carbon fiber “is relatively easily done,” Hogoboom says. The companies that built the boats still have the molds for all the parts (the current design will be used for the 2017-2018 race), and they could start making replacements while the damaged boat is dragged back. Then it’s just a question of cutting out the damaged areas and bonding on the new bits. Nonetheless, it would require a big commitment: Four companies, each in a different country, contributed parts of the boat, and they would all probably need to provide replacement parts. That requires, time, coordination, and money, and there’s a good chance the effort just isn’t worth it.

Even if those practical concerns are met, repairing the boat could make for new complications. In an effort to make participating in the race less expensive and to put the focus on sailing skills, organizers made this year’s competition a single design race: Each of the seven teams is using exactly the same boat. Even using the original molds, a repaired boat would be somewhat different from the original, says Patrick Shaughnessy, president of Farr Yacht Design, which created the boat. If Vestas Wind starts winning races in a fixed-up boat, it would raise eyebrows.

Just Build a New One!

Given the status of the Vestas Wind boat—its hull looks “pretty trashed,” Hogoboom says, and it’s in the middle of the Indian Ocean—the saner move might be to build a new one altogether. But like with a repair job, the tough part isn’t physically producing another boat. It’s a question of time, money, and getting everyone on board. Parts would have to come in from Italy, France, the UK, and Switzerland. Someone would have to sort out the insurance, and the lack of clarity about how the crash happened in the first place will likely play a role.

“So you have all of these companies that need to have the materials to do the work, they need to have the available resources to complete them, and it needs to be able to be done in a timetable that produces a boat that can still participate in the race,” Shaughnessy says. “That’s a tough ask.”

Divvying up the work among the companies makes it possible to build a boat in a few months, but it probably wouldn’t be ready until at least April, Shaughnessy estimates. That would eliminate Vestas Wind from the next three legs of the nine-leg race. Throw in their disqualification from this current leg, and that’s nearly half the race gone. They’d come back in with just a few races left, way behind in the standings.

Everyone involved wants to win, and wants to see a strong competitive field, Shaugnessy says, but it just might not be worth the effort. That leaves option three: dropping out. “You have to look at what’s left, and decide if that’s really a reasonable thing to strive for.”