Team Malizia and 11th Hour Racing Team remain locked in a battle that appears destined to last until The Ocean Race Leg 4 finish line off Newport, Rhode Island is in sight.

On Friday morning UTC (5 May), first Malizia and then 11th Hour Racing Team put in successful gybes as the wind shifted south.

The transition immediately showed as a benefit for Charlie Enright’s team who made at least a theoretical gain on the tracker from being on the inside lane.

But Will Harris and his Malizians retain the lead by a hair, at a fraction of a mile, as the two boats now streak towards the southeast coast of the United States.

Ahead of them is more uncertainty: the wind will shift again, this time in front of them, pushing them back off the coast; they will begin to encounter the Gulf Stream current which pushes to the northeast; and the final 48 hours of the leg promises to be “complicated with many transitions, which are still unclear”, according to race meteorologist Christian Dumard.

The ETA remains Wednesday 10 May for the leading pair. But how they get there is far from certain.

Behind, the IMOCA team that has suffered most over the past hours is Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm, who began to weave to the left on the tracker, and slow down significantly, around 0520 UTC on Friday morning. The slowdown to speeds averaging just four knots would last for hours, prompting speculation there was a problem on board.

As it turns out, the team had sailed into a big windless area that didn’t appear on any weather forecasting or satellite models.

“We’re just surrounded by a glassy sea” was the description off the boat.

“People are sending messages to ask if we’ve broken anything, but the only thing wrong is the wind,” said Mariana Lobato.

The team is doing better again, but the big slowdown has presented an opportunity to GUYOT environnement - Team Europe. After trailing a podium spot by nearly 200 miles earlier this morning, the team is now just 83 miles in arrears, a remarkable turn of events.

With the uncertain conditions ahead, there is more of a chance for the GUYOT crew to get back into the podium race than ever before.

Leg Four Rankings at 1900 UTC, 5 May

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 1,415.1 miles
2. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 0.1 miles
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 140 miles
4. GUYOT enironnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 223 miles

Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.

The German-flagged Team Malizia has moved into the lead in Leg 4 of The Ocean Race 2022-23 on Thursday 4 May as skipper Will Harris and his crew charge north, marching nearly in lockstep with the previous leader 11th Hour Racing Team.

Conditions are favourable for high-speed sailing; reaching across the easterly wind in 15-20 knots of pressure with a moderate, but building, sea state.

The IMOCA leaders are pushing towards a 575-mile run over the past 24 hours. Earlier in The Ocean Race this would have been a record-setting day. But now it’s about 20 miles short and the increasing sea state probably means the record of 595.6 nautical miles — set by Team Holcim-PRB last leg — won’t be broken.

“It’s getting bouncy at the moment, but the good news is that we’ve caught up with 11th Hour Racing Team,” Harris said. “It would be great if we can leave the trade winds and go into the final part of the leg at least on a level playing field with them.”

The leading teams will be moving into a new phase of the leg in the next 24 hours or so and as the wind rotates south they will gybe. Then it will be a matter of picking through the weather systems on the approach to Newport.

As they charge due north today, the conditions are changing quickly. Life on board is more comfortable with the temperature dropping after the heat and humidity of the equator.

“Things are getting a little more bearable onboard, temperature wise. It’s fast sailing but the sea state is getting gradually worse,” said Simon Fisher on 11th Hour Racing Team. “We’re happy pushing forward at between 20-25 knots, we’ve had a good battle with Team Malizia…”

“We are on the bus to Newport” is the way Biotherm skipper Paul Meilhat described things, from 50 miles south of the leading pair. “But the conditions are not classic,” he added. “We are a bit further east which means at the end, in a few days, we will have some upwind, westerly conditions to get to Newport.”

Further back, GUYOT envrionnement - Team Europe is also up to pace, but still nearly a full day behind and in the tropical heat as Annie Lush laments. “The doldrums weren’t too bad,” she said. “We never completely stopped. Now we’re reaching, on the foils, averaging upwards of 20 knots. Much better. It’s still ridiculously hot, it’s just baking inside the boat.”

Relief will come soon as they push north at speed, looking for an opportunity to close what is now a 300-mile gap.

Leg Four Rankings at 1800 UTC, 4 May

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 1,848.8 miles
2. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 3.2 miles
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 37.2 miles
4. GUYOT enironnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 270.7 miles

Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.

On the Leg 4 race course on Wednesday (3 May), the top three teams are clustered together within some 50 miles on the leaderboard, with 11th Hour Racing Team now leading Team Malizia and Biotherm. GUYOT environnement - Team Europe is further behind.

Boat speeds are averaging near 22-24 knots and 24-hour runs are now near 500 miles. Trade winds sailing at its best.

But yesterday as the IMOCA teams were contending with the last vestiges of the doldrums, 11th Hour Racing Team sent through some fascinating insight into the tropical squalls that characterise the area.

“I think if you ask any sailor in The Ocean Race about the worst thing in the doldrums, they would probably say ‘the squalls’,” said Simon Fisher. “Of course you can get these days of calm that are frustrating, but there is always plenty of action in these squalls with big changes in direction and pressure.”

In the boat feed video above, the team starts preparing for a big wind increase after seeing the speed on Team Malizia, just upwind, increase dramatically. Skipper Charlie Enright is looking out the cockpit bubble at the darkening sky, calling out the distance to the new breeze while Francesca Clapcich works the lines to prepare the sails. As the wind comes on the team makes adjustments and the boat speed rockets up over 30 knots.

The moment passes, more adjustments are made, the race continues.

“It’s really tricky conditions,” confirms Team Malizia’s Will Harris. “The wind is up and down and we have to trim all the time…You have to stay very focussed otherwise the boat kind of jumps and loses control or you end up going very slowly.”

Now, for the most part, the teams have left the unstable conditions of the doldrums behind, coming through the crossing in good shape.

“None of the boats really stopped. It was all relatively moderate. We only had a lapse once when we did two circles under a big cloud. But apart from that, we made good time through the doldrums with six to eight knots of wind,” reported GUYOT envrionnement - Team Europe co-skipper Robert Stanjek.

According to race meteorologist Christian Dumard, all the teams will be in the east-northeast trade winds by this evening (UTC) and those conditions will last for 48 hours or so, when the wind is forecast to rotate south and then southwest.

By the beginning of next week, teams will be thinking about the final approach to the finish in Newport (ETA Wednesday 10 May) but long-range the weather forecast looks unsettled and complex. There are still several transitions to navigate that will give tactical opportunities.

Meanwhile, back in Brazil, on Tuesday night (2 May) the Team Holcim-PRB IMOCA was lifted onto a cargo ship, which then departed Rio for the United States on Wednesday morning.

“It was a big day for the team,” said skipper Kevin Escoffier as he helped to manage the operation. “We had to work on so many details in order to load our IMOCA on this cargo ship, for it to be as in Newport as early as possible. Let’s say it is 15 days to Newport…So we will have a very short time before the start of Leg 5 to get the replacement mast fitted.”

Team Holcim-PRB gets loaded onto a cargo vessel in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday 2 May to travel to Newport in time for the start of Leg 5 | Credit: Georgia Schofield/polaRYSE/Holcim-PRB/The Ocean Race

Leg Four Rankings at 1800 UTC, 3 May

• 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 2,354.5 miles
• Team Malizia, distance to lead, 15.6 miles
• Biotherm, distance to lead, 52.6 miles
• GUYOT enironnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 298.7 miles

Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.

On Monday evening UTC (1 May), Team Malizia led 11th Hour Racing Team across the equator, as The Ocean Race returned to the northern hemisphere.

But the margin was slim — just over two minutes separated the leading pair.

“Hopefully we’re going to cross in first…by about 200 metres, I would say,” said Will Harris from on board Malizia. “It’s going to be a dogfight the whole way up [to Newport], I think.

“We’ve sailed down the Atlantic, all the way around and back up. That’s a big part of ‘around the world’ done now.”

“We’re back in the game with the Malizians…again,” said Charlie Enright on board the 11th Hour Racing boat as his team crossed back to the north.

Both IMOCAs were moving well as they made the transition, and the impact of a very weak doldrums pattern hasn’t been too obstructive to progress towards the finish in Newport, Rhode Island.

On Tuesday morning (2 May), Paul Meilhat’s third-placed Biotherm had closed within eight miles of the leaders, but a slower stretch this afternoon has seen the team fall back again, some 30 miles behind.

GUYOT environnement - Team Europe were set to cross the equator before 1800 UTC. Unfortunately for Ben Dutreux’s team, it looks like the doldrums will impact them more than the leading boats and they are likely to fall further behind.

The next two to three days should see the leading teams heading nearly directly north in the easterly trade winds. Approaching the weekend, the wind will shift to the west and there will be another transition to navigate as they gybe with the front. The ETA in Newport remains next Wednesday 10 May.

Leg Four Rankings at 1900 UTC, 2 May

• 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 2,841.3 miles
• Team Malizia, distance to lead, 12.1 miles
• Biotherm, distance to lead, 40.6 miles
• GUYOT enironnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 239.5 miles

Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.

The USA lies to the north and Brazil is now in the wake of the four IMOCA teams racing towards Newport, Rhode Island in Leg 4 of The Ocean Race 2022-23 as the fleet has rounded the northeastern corner of Brazil.

The next transition will be to cross what appears on the forecast to be a fairly benign doldrums — the teams are far enough to the west that the impact shouldn’t be too strong or long-lasting.

As of 1300 UTC on Monday (1 May), the leading teams were starting to approach the unsettled weather that is characteristic of the doldrums. The sailors can expect rain squalls, high temperatures, humidity and thunderstorms. This should last for about 36 hours, before the teams break through and into the north Atlantic trade winds.

Team Malizia and 11th Hour Racing Team have been swapping the lead back and forth on the tracker for the past 24 hours, with the German team slightly further north, and the Americans just to the west. In reality, there is little to choose between the two positions. The pair will cross the equator later on Monday evening UTC and the effects of the doldrums will then become more pronounced.

It’s been a fast day for the fleet, with 24-hour runs approaching the 500-nautical-mile barrier.

“We have flat water, we’re reaching at about 110 degrees to the wind, in about 20-23 knots of windspeed and averaging about 23 to 25 knots of boat speed. It’s fun,” said Alan Roberts on third-placed Biotherm.

That will change tonight (UTC) but when the fleet emerges into the north Atlantic trades, the high-speed reaching will resume.

GUYOT envrionnement - Team Europe will be hoping for more unsettled conditions ahead as they look to make up lost miles after they needed to slow to make repairs to a foil control line on Sunday (30 April). The procedure saw the team slide from second place, and challenging for the lead, to where they sit today — more than 200 miles back.

The ETA for the finish of Leg 4 in Newport remains Wednesday 10 May and should firm up later this week with the fleet in more stable conditions.

Leg Four Rankings at 1600 UTC, 1 May

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 3,168.7 miles
2. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 5.6 miles
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 38.6 miles
4. GUYOT enironnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 220.7 miles

Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.

Moderate easterly trade winds have provided a speedy 24 hours of racing for the four IMOCAs charging north towards the doldrums in Leg 4 of The Ocean Race.

Twenty-four-hour distance runs have nearly doubled — although are still far off a record-setting pace — as the wind has settled in around 12-14 knots on Sunday (30 April).

The result is a drag race directly north, where the teams will leave the northeastern corner of Brazil to port. Their current headings have them closing within about 30 miles of Recife, which is still about 120 miles to the north.

“We’re just cruising north, up the Brazilian coast in moderate conditions,” said Charlie Enright from the leading boat, 11th Hour Racing Team. “It doesn’t look too windy until quite a bit later. Yesterday was a bit sketchy with almost doldrums like conditions. But we got out of it okay…All is well on board for now.”

Some bad luck for GUYOT environnement - Team Europe who had been doing a remarkable job of keeping pace with its rivals over the past day or so. At one point on Sunday morning, the team was showing in second place, just four miles back.

But shortly afterwards, skipper Ben Dutreux’s boat steered towards the coast and slowed. The team reported a small technical issue — later confirming a broken ‘foil down’ line — that would cost them nearly 50 miles before they were back on track at pace.

“There is a little bit more wind now. We’re flying again,” said Dutreux from on board, before the incident. “And we’re heading straight to the north of Brazil, quite fast. It’s nice. It’s also quite close with the other boats, anything can happen.”

But now the team will need to fight hard to regain the lost miles. Perhaps the doldrums, looming a day or so ahead, could offer an opportunity.

“We have come out of the high pressure ridge and we are getting more of the easterly wind,” said Team Malizia’s Nico Lunven. “The next challenge is to round the northeast corner of Brazil. It’s a bit difficult as we don’t want to be too close to the shore, there is bad wind, thunderstorms at night, etc. But to go to Newport, the shortest way is to stick to the coast. We have to find the right balance.

“Then we have the doldurms before the get the north Atlantic trade winds. After that it will be faster.”

But those north Atlantic trades are still at least a couple of days away, with plenty of tricky transitions to manage before then.

Meanwhile, Team Holcim-PRB has confirmed a plan to rejoin the race in Newport ahead of Leg 5, but this means retiring from Leg 4.

Leg Four Rankings at 1500 UTC, 30 April

1. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 3,657.2 miles
2. Team Malizia, distance to lead, 4.6 miles
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 28.1 miles
4. GUYOT enironnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 70.2 miles

Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.

Skipper Kevin Escoffier stepped off his jury-rigged boat in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday afternoon (29 April) local time and announced Team Holcim-PRB would abandon Leg 4 of The Ocean Race 2022-23 to focus on being able to rejoin the race in time for the transatlantic leg from Newport to Aarhus.

The team had dismasted on Thursday (27 April), the fourth day of Leg 4, and had been sailing the IMOCA slowly towards Rio ever since.

The transatlantic Leg 5 of The Ocean Race is a double-points scoring leg and Escoffier says the team must focus on being ready for this to maintain a chance at winning the overall race. Team Holcim-PRB sits atop the overall leaderboard.

“It’s a very difficult decision to make, but common sense prevails,” Escoffier said. “Since our dismasting, the whole team has been totally focused on finding the best solutions so that we can get back into the competition in a solid way. Starting again on this fourth leg would allow us to take a point, but not to arrive in time to line up at the start of the next leg in Newport.

“But the sporting stakes of the fifth leg are very high and we want to be able to present ourselves at our best level for this leg which will count double. We are definitely still aiming for victory on this round the world race and in this perspective, this is the best decision we can make.”

With the assistance of GAC Pindar, the official logistics provider of The Ocean Race, Team Holcim-PRB has worked through numerous options to get a mast from Europe to the boat in either Rio or Newport. The team decided Newport was the most realistic option.

In a statement, Team Holcim-PRB said its shore team members, with the help of the sailors, will prepare the IMOCA boat to be loaded onto a cargo ship that could set off as early as Tuesday to head for Newport. It will take about 16 days at sea to reach the American port.

At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic the mast will be loaded onto another cargo ship. The crossing will last seven days and the mast could be unloaded between 9-10 May in Newport.

According to the team, in the best case scenario Holcim-PRB will be in Newport on 18 May. The team will then have just over 48 hours to rig the boat and finish preparing it for the return trip to Europe.

“I know that everyone is very mobilised and united so that we can be in Newport on time,” Escoffier said. “I have complete confidence in my team to meet this collective challenge.

“We are receiving a lot of messages of support and this is a great boost. Our partners are also fully behind us and, like us, are showing incredible determination.

“I only have one desire, to continue this magical race. In Newport, at the start of the fifth leg, it is possible that we will still be in the lead of the general classification. Mechanical breakdown is part of our sport, we accept it. The next leg will be decisive for the rest of the race and we are looking forward to giving our best as we have done so far.”

The four boats racing north in Leg 4 of The Ocean Race 2022-23 are in a challenging position on Saturday (29 April). The wind is very light and unstable. The result? 24-hour runs of less than 180 nautical miles. That might be a good day on a 35-foot cruising yacht, but it’s not what these IMOCAs were designed to do.

One look at the tracker tells you all you need to know: boat speeds of five to eight knots are the norm today.

The local weather conditions created by the clouds are making for a game of snakes and ladders on the water, with big gains and losses available even when boats are relatively close.

“The deck is dry, but the wind is very shifty,” said Seb Simon on GUYOT environnement - Team Europe who have moved up in the fleet. “This morning we could see Biotherm which was a nice surprise. It will be like this all day [generally light, gusty, clouds]. It’s nice but we’d like a little bit more speed.”

The latest weather analysis has the teams sailing in light trade winds for most of the day, but the windspeed should increase on Sunday (30 April) to more moderate conditions as they close in on the northeast corner of Brazil and pass by Recife. Then, Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 May will see a passage through the doldrums.

Adding to the misery is the temperature. “I feel like I’m under a magnifying glass,” said Charlie Enright from on board a baking hot 11th Hour Racing Team. “It’s warm. Very warm. A two-hour stint in ‘the bubble’ [the plexiglass trimming station] is getting to be too much. The sun takes a toll.”

Enright’s team is still in the lead, but the spread from first to fourth is less then 30 miles. In these unstable conditions, any one of the four teams could emerge from the doldrums with the lead on Tuesday.

Further south, meanwhile, Team Holcim-PRB continues to progress towards Rio, and the boat is expected to arrive on Saturday local time.

Leg Four Rankings at 1600 UTC, 29 April

1. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 4,019.4 miles
2. Team Malizia, distance to lead, 3.8 miles
3. GUYOT enironnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 21.9 miles
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 29.9 miles
5. Team Holcim-PRB, racing suspended

Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.

It’s been a long speed contest for the four IMOCAs racing to the northeast, away from the Brazilian coast, on Leg 4 of The Ocean Race 2022-23.

For over 24 hours they had been racing close to the wind on port tack, heading offshore. As The Ocean Race meteorologist Christian Dumard notes: “Very shifty and unstable upwind conditions.”

But over the next 48 hours, the teams will need to transition into building easterly trade winds which should carry them up to the doldrums. In these conditions, speed is king — and the fleet has closed up, with all four boats within 16 miles on the tracker as of 1800 UTC on Friday (28 April).

“It’s likely to be gusty but generally quite light,” said Alan Roberts on Biotherm. “We have Malizia just a mile away, and GUYOT a bit further back and 11th Hour Racing just up in front of us…

“The fleet has been compressing for the last few hours and I think it’s going to continue to do so. These next hours are going to be key to get into the new breeze and starting the next phase of the race which is going to be reaching up the Brazilian coast.”

As the boats sail away from the coast, they are leaving behind two exclusion zones: a couple for some big oil fields that include a lot of installations and commercial traffic and one just off the coast, marking the Abrolhos Bank, a known area for marine wildlife.

Damian Foxall on the 11th Hour Racing Team sent some notes back on the reasons behind some of the nature-specific exclusion zones, including this one: “We have one here called the Abrolhos Banks which is one of the zones where up to 25,000 southern Right Whales and Humpbacks come to from Antartica, where the warmer waters are, and to breed. We are a month away from this activity, but just to be safe, the organisers have defined this exclusion zone for us to sail around.”

Meanwhile, Team Holcim-PRB have come up with a plan to sail the boat to Rio, under jury rig, where they will fit a spare mast and rejoin the race after their dismasting disaster on Thursday (27 April). Escoffier and his team hope to reach Rio on Saturday (29 April) using this configuration.

The logistics and timings behind this operation are complicated. But with support from the experts on the GAC Pindar operations team, Kevin Escoffier’s crew and shore team are working on multiple potential solutions to get the mast from Lorient in France to Rio in the most efficient way that will support a very tight timeline.

The shore crew will help fit the new mast and the team intends to finish Leg 4 to collect at least one point and maintain its position at the top of the overall race rankings.

Leg Four Rankings at 1800 UTC, 28 April

1. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 4,184.8 miles
2. Team Malizia, distance to lead, 6.6 miles
3. GUYOT enironnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 14.2 miles
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 16 miles
5. Team Holcim-PRB, racing suspended

Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.

Near 0500 UTC, while the boat was racing east in moderate northerly winds and sea state, the mast on Team Holcim-PRB came crashing down.

Skipper Kevin Escoffier had a message sent to Race Control that the crew was safe and again shortly afterwards that the boat was secure and no assistance was required.

“We very well. We were leading in with our fresh, new crew on Holcim-PRB. We had a mechanical failure and the mast came down,” Escoffier said. “That’s life. We are working now on a jury rig to go back to the harbour to be able to be back in the race as soon as possible. The team is working hard to find a solution.”

While this is a big blow to a team that has won 19 out of 20 possible points across the first three legs of The Ocean Race, the competitor in Escoffier is not giving up.

“If we are going to get to Newport, the start is on the 21 May, and if we can get there we will still be leading The Ocean Race, so we’re working hard to make that happen,” he said.

The Holcim-PRB team is looking at all options, including whether it would be possible to get a spare mast to Brazil in time for the team to resume racing in Leg 4, thereby securing at least one point and rejoining the fleet in Newport in time for the transatlantic leg.

If that proves logistically impossible with timing, other options could include shipping the boat and spare mast separately to Newport in time for Leg 5 (also very tight on time) or Aarhus for Leg 6.

All this will be decided in the coming hours. For now, the boat and crew are safe and the team has options to get back into The Ocean Race.

“Shocking news. Luckily no one is injured, but it’s an incredible shame. Kevin sailed such a strong race. We actually passed him on sight tonight, spoke briefly on VHF,” said Robert Stanjek on GUYOT envrionnement - Team Europe, no doubt sharing the sentiments of all the competitors. “We suffer with them, of course. You wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

Elsewhere on the water, 11th Hour Racing Team has moved up one place to take the lead, with Team Malizia just 10 miles behind and Biotherm close as well. GUYOT envrionnement - Team Europe is just over 20 miles in arrears but holding pace over the past 24 hours.

The IMOCA fleet are breaking free of the exclusion zones that hampered their movements midweek which opens up some of the tactical options.

Leg Four Rankings at 1800 UTC, 27 April

1. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 4,334.7 miles
2. Team Malizia, distance to lead, 11.8 miles
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 12.7 miles
4. GUYOT enironnement - Team Europe, distance to lead, 23.1 miles
5. Team Holcim-PRB, racing suspended

Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.