The racing circuit announced on Thursday that SailGP had cancelled the event in Rio next month after discovering a defect with select wingsails of the F50 fleet. This will allow time for repairs before the event in New York in June.

Testing and analysis were conducted after the Australian boat's left wing collapsed last month in San Francisco.

The organizers said that they will consider all possible options for rescheduling.

SailGP CEO Russell Coutts said, "Our engineers have found a problem with the bonding the core material to the shear web in some of the wingsails. This could compromise the structural integrity."

We've chosen to postpone the event next month to give us time to finish repairs and to conduct any further investigation.

SailGP will return to New York on June 8 and 9. (Reporting and editing by Ken Ferris in New York, Amy Tennery from New York)

(source: Reuters)