Relaunch for superyacht

The bow broke just two weeks after launch

The giant catamaran Team Philips, which was badly damaged during her first sea trial in March is to set sail again in September.

The £4m vessel had to be towed back to her base at Totnes, South Devon, after a 45ft long section of one of her twin hulls broke off near the Isles of Scilly.

We can't wait to get her out sailing again and show what she can really do

Pete Goss

It was a major set back for the boat's skipper and team leader Pete Goss, who hopes to sail Team Philips in the round-the-world competition - The Race - in December.

The 120ft craft has now undergone repairs and Mr Goss is confident that it will be lowered back into the water on 23 September.

Radical design

The 38-year-old ex-Royal Marine, said: "This is the moment we have been waiting four months for. We can't wait to get her out sailing again and show what she can really do.

"We have already sailed 1,000 miles in Team Philips and know she is a very special boat. We are confident in her ability, and as a team are focused on getting out there to win The Race."

Pete Goss: "Focused on The Race"

He said repairs to the craft, the world's largest carbon fibre structure, had been carried out without changing its radical design concept.

The crew will test two new engines, fitted as a safety precaution for The Race, in September as the vessel travels 12 miles down the river Dart to Dartmouth.

She will return to Totnes the following morning.

Hero yachtsman

Team Philips and her six man crew will then sail across the Atlantic to New York, prior to voyaging to Monaco on 30 November for the prologue to The Race.

She will sail to Barcelona on 9 December and remain there until the event starts on 31 December.

The trials catastrophe which crippled Team Philips happened just 15 days after she was named by the Queen in a high profile ceremony near Tower Bridge, London.

Mr Goss became a global hero when he turned back in a Southern Ocean hurricane to rescue fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli in the 1996-97 Vendee Globe round the world single handed race.