Displaying items by tag: The Ocean Race
GUYOT environnement - Team Europe has announced its intention to continue in The Ocean Race 2022-23 as it fights for a comeback in Leg 6 out of Aarhus next week.
The boat is currently in the Kiel shipyard Knierim, where the tech team and 10 international boatbuilding experts are working day and night on the hull, mast, foils and rudder following its dismasting in a fierce North Atlantic storm nearly a month ago.
Logistical issues — not limited to the practicalities of shipping the stricken IMOCA from Nova Scotia to northern Europe — have been solved with assistance from GAC Pindar, and the financial gap has been bridged “thanks to the common support and solidarity of many race stakeholders”, the team says.
“This comeback is only possible because of a great collaboration between The Ocean Race family, all of whom worked incredibly hard on the different levels to help us get back in the race,” said team manager Jens Kuphal.
“It was not only a question of whether the repair was technically possible at all in the tight timeframe, but also of setting up the financing for it. We got support from all sides. The Ocean Race was committed to us and all the other teams helped.
“Special thanks go to Biotherm who showed unmatched solidarity and sporting spirit in providing what we needed most. And 11th Hour Racing Team pulled out all the stops to help us acquire their spare mast on very favourable terms. Team Holcim-PRB too, contributed to help get us here.
“But the truth is all of our friends on teams that we normally compete against pulled together to see us have this opportunity to be back on the start line in Aarhus. And none of this would have been possible without the leadership and contributions of The Ocean Race organisation.
“During the last two weeks our team has grown together even more. After the abandonment of the Southern Ocean leg, the dismasting was the second knockdown. But we got up again… We want to make the impossible possible once again and get the boat to the starting line in Aarhus.”
Skipper Benjamin Dutreux said: “The decisions weren’t easy to make. Over the last 15 days, we’ve been in a lot of discussions with a large number of players to see how feasible it would be to rejoin the race from a financial point of view, because it’s a costly logistical challenge, there’s been a lot of damage on board, so it wasn’t just a technical challenge, we had to find a lot of support to be able to bounce back.
“Of course, we had to consider the fact that we’ll be taking part in the Transat Jacques Vabre in October. Inevitably the question of stopping the race came up. This option has always been the last option. It’s been like a sword of Damocles hanging over my head since the dismasting, but deep down I was convinced that we were going to find the necessary solutions to get back into the race.”
Dutreux addd: “We’ve set up our base camp there at the Knierim Boatyard. The German part of the campaign has local contacts and was able to organise support manpower to be able to repair the boat in five days.”
Gunnar Knierim and Steffen Müller, bosses of the Kiel Knierim shipyard, explain: “We’re up for such a fire brigade mission. That’s what our job is all about. Economic thinking only takes second place here. When the yacht arrived here, we went to work with all enthusiasm. It is super to be involved in this project. Finally, there is a real racing boat in the hall again.”
Thomas Cardrin, head of the tech team, summarises all the technical challenges: When the mast broke, the hull as well as foils and rudders also sustained damage. Eight boatbuilders are currently working day and night on two bulkheads. The keel suspension has to be repaired, which ties up two more boatbuilders for three days. The mast blank from 11th Hour Racing Team now needs to be fitted with the wiring and technical equipment (e.g. radar and Oscar) and adapted to the boat. The replacement mainsail needs new battens.
The work has already progressed considerably in the past few days, so that it is planned to push the yacht out of the shipyard hall on Monday (5 June) and to hang up the keel and foils. On Monday evening it will be put into the water in the Kiel Canal, so that on Tuesday the mast can be set and the sails hoisted.
Benjamin Dutreux summarises: “But here we are, the pieces of the puzzle have been put together and we’ve given the ‘Go’. We’re going to have to fight even harder over the next few days to pull off this commando mission and make it to the start in Aarhus, but we’re more determined than ever!”
Denmark’s finance minister Nicolai Halby Wammen has announced that his government will propose a law on nature and biodiversity with a target to protect 20 per cent of the ocean and strictly protect 10 per cent of the ocean.
Speaking at The Ocean Race Summit Aarhus on Thursday (1 June), Wammen said: “I am very proud to say that the Danish government will propose a law on nature and biodiversity and we have set a target to protect 20 per cent of the ocean, and strictly protect 10 per cent of the ocean, meaning that these areas will become essentially undisturbed from human presence.
“This is a very important step which I hope others will follow, because it is very good to speak and dream about how to protect the ocean, but it is not enough: if we are to make a real difference, if we are to make real change, if we are to protect what we love and what we cherish, real action is needed.”
The minister and former mayor of Aarhus added: “As humans, we are here for one brief shining moment, while the ocean has always been here and will remain here. We have not been very good at protecting it, which is something that the city and its people take very seriously. Let’s fight for the ocean as much as the ocean fights for us.”
The event, held during the stopover of the round-the-world sailing race, gathered together over 150 government, civil society and private sector representatives to explore ways in which the international community can come together to protect and regenerate the ocean and recognise its intrinsic rights.
The summit analysed the power of sailing to influence positive change, the close intersection of science, shipping and sailing, the key role of youth in ocean action, the change needed for a more sustainable fashion industry and featured innovative solutions.
Boris Herrmann, skipper of Team Malizia, which last week set a new 24-hour monohull distance record as they raced into Aarhus, covering 641.13 nautical miles, spoke at the Summit as part of a panel that examined how boats can be vessels of opportunity.
Talking about the team’s work to gather scientific data about the state of the ocean to help grow understanding of climate change, he said: “I like these opportunities we are given, we can contribute to science. This helps us learn about it ourselves and to reach out with a message. Sport has the potential to create attention and emotion.”
Leonardo Sonzio, vice president and head of fleet management and technology at Maersk spoke about the opportunities that shipping provides and highlighted the world’s first green methanol powered vessel that will do her maiden voyage this year, arriving in Copenhagen in September.
“This is the start of a new era for shipping,” he said. “We are committed to deliver our decarbonisation targets which are in line with the science-based target — 1.5 degree pathway.”
The Ocean Race Summit Aarhus is part of a series of high-level events to promote the recognition of the inherent rights of the ocean, held in some of the stopover cities that are hosting the teams as they circumnavigate the planet during The Ocean Race 2022-23.
The sixth and penultimate leg of the race next week sees the VO65 fleet rejoin the IMOCAs for a three-day, 800-nautical mile sprint from Aarhus to The Hague in the Netherlands – with the IMOCA fleet making a fly-by visit to Kiel while the VO65s race directly to The Hague.
Much of the early part of the leg takes place in coastal waters, where making the most of the thermal breezes caused by land heating and cooling — as well as dealing effectively with coastal currents — could be key to success.
In accordance with The Ocean Race sailing instructions, which allow the race committee to shorten the course for boats still racing, the Leg 5 finish line for Biotherm has been moved to longitude 0-degrees.
Accordingly, the team finished at 10:37:50 UTC on Wednesday (31 May) in fourth place, scoring four points for the leg. Their elapsed time for the shortened course was nine days, 16 hours, 22 minutes and 50 seconds.
While the leg is finished for Biotherm, this hasn’t changed the distance to go to Aarhus, which is still 480 miles away as of Wednesday afternoon — more than two days after 11th Hour Racing Team crossed the finish line in first place.
The team is making way slowly, protecting the stability of the mast despite their broken rigging and is not expected to join the IMOCA fleet at Ocean Live Park before the weekend.
See the latest boat feed from the team, which shows how they are sailing under a jury-rigged shroud towards Aarhus:
Meanwhile, Ocean Live Park in Aarhus is a bustling hub of activity. There has been an opening-day drone show, bands, a VO65 arrival parade of sail, school visits to the learning programme, as well as all manner of entertainment and hospitality. And that’s just the first couple of days.
The Ocean Race Summit takes place on Thursday and the rest of the stopover promises much more in the way of an exciting and engaging visitor experience building up to Sunday’s In Port Racing, ahead of the Leg 6 start next week, with sunshine forecast all the way through.
Leg 5 positions/points
- 11th Hour Racing Team - 10 points
- Team Holcim-PRB - 8 points
- Team Malizia - 6 points
- Biotherm - 4 points
- GUYOT environnement - Team Europe - suspended racing
The Ocean Race IMOCA Leaderboard (through Leg 5)
- 11th Hour Racing Team – 28 points
- Team Holcim-PRB – 27 points
- Team Malizia – 24 points
- Biotherm – 17 points
- GUYOT envrionnement - Team Europe – 2 points
Skipper Charlie Enright’s smile was as bright as the early morning sun in Aarhus, Denmark on Monday (29 May) as he led his 11th Hour Racing Team to a first-place finish in Leg 5 of The Ocean Race 2022-23.
The win was doubly important — the transatlantic race is a double-points-scoring leg and with the win, 11th Hour Racing Team has climbed to the top of the overall leaderboard for the first time.
“It’s a good feeling to be at the top of the table,” said Enright when he finally stepped ashore. “It’s more important to be on top in July than it is now, but this is a step in the right direction.
“We’ve been trying to make incremental improvements in every area of the campaign,” he said when asked how the team has won the last two legs. “We’ve done that on board the boat, we’ve done that on the technical side, and the logistics side as well as we set ourselves up for success everywhere in the team.”
“We went into this leg knowing that we needed to be aggressive and we needed to have a good result in this leg to stand a chance in the race,” added navigator Simon ‘SiFi’ Fisher. “So we tried to sail aggressively and we sailed our own race. I am very happy to say it worked out nicely — everybody did a tremendous job.”
Nearly four hours after 11th Hour Racing Team won the leg, Team Holcim-PRB took a hard-earned second place finish, holding off Team Malizia who finished just five minutes behind.
“I think we’ve been sailing fast and as well as the others,” Holcim skipper Kevin Escoffier said. “We had a few issues — at the beginning we had to earn some trust in our [new] mast and then we broke the 24-hour record, but it wasn’t quite enough.
“The new IMOCAs are quite extreme — fast but not very comfortable. I can tell you that doing 640 miles in 24 hours is definitely not comfortable! But by finishing in second place, we still have it in our hands to win The Ocean Race.”
For Team Malizia, the third-place finish drops them further behind than they would like on the overall leaderboard, but co-skipper Will Harris was defiant and confident when asked if they could still win the race.
“Of course we can. For sure, definitely. Anything can happen in this race. You have to keep believing all the way to the finish…there is plenty to fight for still,” he said.
“We came so close to catching up to Holcim-PRB at the end there. Unfortunately we didn’t quite get the result that we wanted. We really wanted to get a few more points than that.”
Biotherm remains on the race course, nearing the top of Scotland, and with over 750 nautical miles to go to the finish. The team is sailing slowly, protecting the mast, and won’t be in Aarhus until the end of the week.
Leg Five Rankings at 1600 UTC, 29 May
- 11th Hour Racing Team, finished on 29/05/2023 at 02:56:49 UTC
- Team Holcim-PRB, finished on 29/05/2023 at 07:22:03 UTC
- Team Malizia, finished on 29/05/2023 at 07:27:50 UTC
- Biotherm, distance to finish, 723.9 miles
Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.
Change may be coming to The Ocean Race. Since the opening leg from Alicante to Cabo Verde, skipper Kevin Escoffier and his rotating cast of characters on Team Holcim-PRB have been firmly positioned at the top of the IMOCAs’ overall race leaderboard.
Now, with just over 250 miles left to the Leg 5 finish line in Aarhus, it is Charlie Enright’s 11th Hour Racing Team that is keeping the pressure on, racing at eye-watering speeds towards the end of the leg.
A win here — on this double-points scoring leg — would be the second consecutive leg victory for the American-flagged team and would vault the pre-race favourite to the top of the overall race leaderboard.
But it is not over yet. At 1600 UTC on Sunday, the leader had 175 miles to sail and a 26-mile lead to protect. The fast downwind conditions will require some manoeuvring and there are a handful of traffic separation zones — exclusion zones — to navigate.
And if that wasn’t enough, Team Malizia, fresh off their record-breaking run, is lurking just over 40 miles back in third place.
The ETA for the winning boat is after 0430 local time in Aarhus (0230 GMT) in the early hours of Monday morning. Catch the arrival live on eurosport.com.
Meanwhile, Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm is having a leg the team would rather forget. Overnight they broke the port shroud, but fortunately the crew are all safe and the team was able to ensure the stability of the mast, though the boat is now sailing more slowly towards Aarhus, well off the pace.
Leg Five Rankings at 1600 UTC, 28 May
- 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 175.8 miles
- Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 26.3 miles
- Team Malizia, distance to lead, 41.5 miles
- Biotherm, distance to lead, 723.7 miles
Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.
Records are being set and then broken again on Leg 5 of The Ocean Race 2022-23.
First it was 11th Hour Racing Team, powering to a new standard only to be eclipsed a short time later by Team Holcim-PRB, who appeared to have secured not only a new race record but the outright monohull record for distance covered in 24 hours.
Enter Team Malizia. The trailing boat of the leading trio was the last to nose into the favourable conditions for breaking records: downwind reaching in 25 knots and relatively flat water. Simply ideal for the latest generation IMOCAs.
But if the Malizians had a later start, their endgame was brilliant. On Friday night, near 2220 UTC, the team edged past the mark set by Team Holcim-PRB, and narrowly established the new standard — 641.13 nautical miles covered in 24 hours.
The data will need to ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council to become official, but it is well past the previous mark of 618.01 miles set by the 100-foot maxi yacht Comanche in 2015.
“Congrats to all the team; it feels a little bit unbelievable and still like everyone is hesitant to celebrate but we are super happy and have only good vibes,” said Team Malizia skipper Boris Herrmann.
“It’s great to see that the boat can do so well. We had exceptional conditions with a flat sea, the wind steady from the right direction, the right angle for such a long time… Sometimes, the waves got a little bit shorter and we would slow down to 18 knots and get a bit stuck in the sea. Most of the time the boat would pass the sea perfectly and fly at 27 to 34 knots; it felt really relaxed.
“In a way, it didn’t feel like pushing and we didn’t think we would be able to break the record, so we were quite relaxed most of the time except in the three last hours where the excitement of maybe breaking the record built up.
“And then there was an epic, funny, exciting moment, such a good team spirit and thanks to all the team here and on land and our partners that have made this possible and have built this amazing boat, I am super proud of everyone and Malizia - Seaexplorer.”
The fast pace has also brought the Malizians right back into the race for honours into Aarhus, now trailing the leading 11th Hour Racing Team by just 25 miles. Team Holcim-PRB is squeezed in the middle, just 10 miles back.
The leading pack are now (at 1700 UTC, Saturday) racing off the northern mainland of Scotland, and about to make their turn to the east around towards Denmark. With the blistering pace of the last 48 hours, the ETA into Aarhus has moved up to as early as midnight on Sunday night (28 May).
Elsewhere, the fourth boat in the fleet, Biotherm, continues its private race, having fallen into a different weather pattern. Skipper Paul Meilhat and his team are in good spirits, but over a full day behind the leaders.
Leg Five Rankings at 1700 UTC, 27 May
- 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 600.6 miles
- Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 19.3 miles
- Team Malizia, distance to lead, 24.9 miles
- Biotherm, distance to lead, 602.6 miles
Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.
The last time we saw the VO65 fleet in The Ocean Race was in January and the teams had just completed the opening stage of the VO65 Sprint, from Alicante in Spain to Cabo Verde.
The Polish-flagged WindWhisper Racing Team won the race south from the Mediterranean out to the Atlantic, with Team JAJO and Austrian Ocean Racing powered by Team Genova rounding out the podium.
Now the fleet is making its way north to Aarhus, Denmark in anticipation of meeting up once again with The Ocean Race ahead of the second stage of the VO65 Sprint.
The WindWhisper Racing Team is already in Aarhus, training ahead of the leg.
“We’re really looking forward to being back in the race from Aarhus onwards, especially after our excellent first stage from Alicante to Cabo Verde in January,” said WindWhisper Spanish skipper Pablo Arrarte.
“We are ready, the boat is ready. Our international crew has a strong Polish component and will have a few changes but the core will remain the same and we plan to have up to six sailors under 30 years old to give the youth a great opportunity to improve their skills in a truly professional environment.”
“Aarhus is a great place we know well and which always gives a special feeling, so we’re looking forward to coming back to Aarhus,” said Jelmer van Beek, skipper of Team JAJO. “It’s time for the VO65s to rejoin the race. For now we’re in second place, we’re happy with that. But the race is far from over, we’re only looking ahead. We will do everything we can to give the WindWhisper Racing Team a hard time and make it a tough race.”
“I am thrilled to be back in The Ocean Race again,” said Gerwin Jansen, skipper of Austrian Ocean Racing powered by Team Genova. “It was tough to see IMOCA boats racing in the Southern Ocean without us, but we used that time to work hard and improve our boat and sails. With these upgrades, we’re more competitive than ever and ready to hunt down the leaders. We’re excited for the challenge ahead.”
“We are looking forward to being back onboard Viva México for the start of stage two in the VO65 Sprint,” said Erik Brockmann, skipper of Viva México. “It felt like a long break, following the race from on shore, but now we are ready and excited to be back!
“The first stage of the race did not go as we would have liked but finishing and getting those two points really is giving us a chance now to fight for a podium finish which is our goal. We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone in Aarhus!”
The Ambersail team will not return for the final two stages of The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint, while the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team is in a new collaboration with Trifork for the final two stages of the event.
Race veteran Roberto ‘Chuny’ Bermúdez de Castro from Spain will skipper the Mirpuri/Trifork Racing Team.”I am really happy to be part of this great team, which has come together in a record time,” he said. “We are a mix of people who know each other from a long time ago along with a new generation of young sailors. We have a fantastic boat which is in really good shape. I really appreciate the owners for their efforts to put all this together. We are looking forward to great racing in the VO65 Sprint.”
The teams will assemble in Aarhus in the coming days ahead of the In-Port Race next Sunday 4 June, and then the VO65 fleet will race directly to The Hague (with no Kiel Fly-By) starting on Thursday 8 June. The last stage of the VO65 Sprint takes the fleet to Genoa, Italy for the Grand Finale.
The Ocean Race: Team Holcim-PRB Shatters Existing 24-Hour Distance Records in Monohull Class
Skipper Kevin Escoffier and his Team Holcim-PRB have shattered the existing 24-hour distance records in the monohull class.
First to fall was The Ocean Race 24-Hour Speed Record Challenge sponsored by Ulysse Nardin, previously set at 602 nautical miles by Simeon Tienpont’s Team AkzoNobel in the last race.
A few hours later and the outright monohull record, 618 nautical miles, set by the 100-footer Comanche in 2015, had been eclipsed. Both records are pending ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.
As of 0630 UTC on Friday morning (26 May), Team Holcim-PRB had peaked at 640.9 nautical miles. And by Friday evening UTC they’d taken the lead in Leg 5 from 11th Hour Racing Team too.
Conditions have been near perfect for making a record run — downwind reaching, in 25-27 knots of wind, with a relatively flat sea state.
Escoffier commented on their success: “It’s a great boat and I’m really pleased! It’s not every day you break a record like this.
“I’m really happy for the whole team after what happened on the fourth leg [when the team retired after dismasting]. We don’t know what’s going to happen next, even if we’re going to do everything we can to win this leg. In any case, I think it’s a great reward for the whole team.”
The previous race record holder, Simeon Tienpont, was effusive in his admiration for the new achievement.
“Big congratulations to the Holcim-PRB crew,” he said. “When I woke up this morning it brought a big smile to my face… For me personally it’s great to see these boats crushing the race record but also the 24-hour record by beating a 100-foot maxi yacht. That is just insane! I think It’s really good for the sport; it shows what we are capable of these days, with all the foiling techniques and innovations.
“It must be unbelievably exciting for those guys — I think this is a record that will be hard to break.”
Team Holcim-PRB hasn’t been alone on this record-breaking mission. In fact, the first into the favourable conditions was 11th Hour Racing Team which was also the first to push past the existing race record.
But the boat topped out its run at 611.9 nautical miles, all the more remarkable considering the team reported a collision with what the crew suspect to be “a marine mammal or megafauna”.
As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the boat came to a sudden stop and according to the team, trimmer Charlie Dalin suffered a suspected mild concussion, while media crew member Amory Ross injured his shoulder.
After consultation with the onshore race doctor, who has prescribed rest and monitoring, the team is continuing to race towards Aarhus. The boat does not appear to be damaged and remains at the front of the fleet.
Now within 50 miles of the front IMOCA pair, Team Malizia was the last of the leading trio to enter the ‘record run’ conditions and the team has been posting impressive stats throughout the day.
Further back, Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm crew is still battling different conditions to the leading trio, and although their boat speed is rising they are now nearly 500 miles behind.
The ETA for the finish in Aarhus has moved forward with the record-breaking conditions to this Monday 29 May.
Leg Five Rankings at 1900 UTC, 26 May
- Team Holcim-PRB, distance to finish, 1,009.2 miles
- 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 3.1 miles
- Team Malizia, distance to lead, 46.1 miles
- Biotherm, distance to lead, 487.1 miles
Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.
It’s going to be an interesting 24 hours in Leg 5 of The Ocean Race 2022-23 as the leading trio find themselves in strong downwind reaching conditions and ‘relatively’ flat water — a combination that could produce a new 24-hour distance record.
11th Hour Racing Team, at the head of the IMOCA fleet, is already posting a run of over 550 miles for the past 24 hours, a number that is currently going up with each hourly position report.
“We’ve got plenty of wind, there’s a bit more pressure than forecast, and it’s still a little bumpy, but we got out across the front earlier than the other guys which seems to be a gain for now,” said 11th Hour Racing Team’s skipper Charlie Enright. “And we just had 31 knots as a 10-minute average, which isn’t nothing!”
Team Holcim-PRB and Team Malizia, in second and third place respectively, are striving to match that pace. This is a flat-out drag race, with limited tactical opportunities.
“It’s a speed course, not a strategic course, at the moment,” said Yann Eliès on Team Malizia. “When we get close to Aarhus it becomes more of a coastal race with some more strategic options.”
Race meteorologist Christian Dumard explains: “The three first boats are sailing around the high pressure weather system in strong southerly winds, while Biotherm couldn’t cross the front and is in upwind conditions. For the leaders, the wind could still be quite strong through Friday, before the it shifts to the northwest.”
Dumard adds that the current forecast is for light winds near the finish, which could provide wholesale changes for the leaders. “Anything could happen,” he says.
“It’s been tough for us, we got caught behind the fleet in the light winds leaving Newport and we’ve since had some technical issues on board — the autopilot and our electronics,” said Alan Roberts on Biotherm. “We also had a sail lock break and we needed to recover the J3 headsail out of the water — we’ve lost a few hours dealing with these problems.”
Those lost hours and miles are now compounding as Biotherm is on the unfavourable side of the front and still pushing more upwind. “The sea state has been pretty messy so we’ve had to back off in the nasty conditions,” Roberts adds. “It is what it is. All we can do is to keep going as fast as possible in the weather conditions we have.”
Leg Five Rankings at 1700 UTC, 25 May
- 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 1,655.4 miles
- Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 19.3 miles
- Team Malizia, distance to lead, 83.3 miles
- Biotherm, distance to lead, 264.4 miles
Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.
Fast Pace for Leading IMOCA Trio in The Ocean Race Leg 5 — But Low Pressure System Looms
It’s been a bumpy ride for the past two days of The Ocean Race as winds in the 25-30 knot range interact with the currents of the Gulf Stream to make an uncomfortable and unpredictable sea state.
Despite that, the leading IMOCA trio have been racing north at a 500-mile per day pace, ticking down the miles towards Aarhus, Denmark.
But on Wednesday afternoon (24 May), they are pushing towards the centre of the low pressure system that has been the dominant weather feature of this leg, and are seeing the wind back around from the northwest to the southwest. This will require a gybe and at least a few hours on a east-southeast heading that isn’t particularly favourable in terms of getting to Aarhus.
11th Hour Racing Team, leading the fleet, was the first to see this shift and the first to gybe. It’s been an exhausting run since the start, and skipper Charlie Enright is exhausted.
“There hasn’t been a lot of sleep at all because of the weather. I’m pretty tired,” he said. “We’re trying to manage the situation as best we can, rotating through people. But there’s been a lot of manoeuvres — some expected, most unexpected — so it’s been tough to plan around.”
There’s no opportunity to let up. As the first boat to gybe, 11th Hour Racing Team has seen its lead of 15 miles over Team Holcim-PRB drop to less than one mile, with Malizia — winners of the leg-starting In Port Race on Sunday — also finding its form and staying in touch just 16 miles back. If the others don’t gybe, there will be a new leader in the next hours, even if 11th Hour Racing Team retains a tactically strong position.
“We had a good day today. We managed to find our speed again and kind of match pace with Team Holcim-PRB and 11th Hour Racing Team,” said Will Harris on Malizia. “They managed to get away from us a bit yesterday but we’re trying to find our legs, find our speed in these conditions. But we’re still in touch, a long way to go and we just have to keep going.”
Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm team has dropped back a little more over the past 24 hours, not showing the pace required to stay with the leading trio.
GUYOT envrionnement - Team Europe is not participating in Leg 5 after its dismasting in the final days of Leg 4. The boat is being shipped to Europe and the team is exploring options to rejoin the race.
The ETA in Aarhus remains next Tuesday 30 May, but there is still a degree of uncertainty around this, which should work out over the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, the organising committee of Genova — The Grand Finale launched its ‘one month to go’ countdown today, with Ocean Live Park in the finish port opening on Saturday 24 June.
Leg Five Rankings at 1800 UTC, 24 May
- 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 2,213.7 miles
- Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 15.5 miles
- Team Malizia, distance to lead, 34.1 miles
- Biotherm, distance to lead, 109.4 miles
Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.