AFP - Canadian yachtsman Derek Hatfield became the 13th competitor to retire from the challenging Vendee Globe round-the-world race on Sunday, his press office announced.
  
Hatfield took the decision after his boat Algimouss-Spirit was damaged by a huge wave.
  
The press office said that Hatfield, who was lying 16th in the race some 3,857.4 nautical miles behind race leader Michel Desjoyeaux, would make his way slowly to Hobart in Tasmania some 1000 miles away.
  
The original 30-boat flotilla left the western French port of Les Sables d'Olonne on November 9 heading down to the Cape of Good Hope before crossing the Indian and Southern Oceans south of Australia.