Another 24 hours of light-wind racing out on the Mediterranean on the third and final leg of The Ocean Race Europe saw both the VO65 and IMOCA 60 fleets compress significantly today, Wednesday 16 June, as they push towards the finish line in Genoa, Italy.
In the five-boat IMOCA 60 class, the trailing group of four foilers — 11th Hour Racing Team (USA), LinkedOut (FRA), Bureau Vallée (FRA), and CORUM L’Épargne (FRA) — started to make better progress in new breeze, eating considerably into the leg-long lead established by the non-foiling Offshore Team Germany (GER) skippered by Robert Stanjek (GER).
At 0000 UTC this morning, Stanjek and his crew — navigator Benjamin Dutreux (FRA), Annie Lush (GBR), Phillip Kasüske (GER), and their onboard reporter, Felix Diemer (GER) — were 97 natural miles/180km ahead of the pack.
A moment to reflect on board 11th Hour Racing Team | Credit: Amory Ross/11th Hour Racing/The Ocean Race
This afternoon at 1600 UTC/1700 CEST that lead had been more than halved to 45nm as the American-flagged 11th Hour Racing Team — made up of skipper Charlie Enright (USA), past winners of The Ocean Race Pascal Bidégorry (FRA) and Simon Fisher (GBR), Swiss round-the-world sailor Justine Mettraux and onboard reporter Amory Ross (USA) — leads a charge from the foilers in new breeze that has seen the yachts accelerate to consistent double-digit speeds for the first time in 48 hours.
“We’re trying to push hard for sure,” said Stanjek from on board the German boat. “But it’s just very tricky on this coastline. Overall, I’m very happy with the sailing on a big lead over the rest of the fleet. We just have to sail our race and bring it home safe. But we have to stay focussed — it’s not a given.”
“Well, we’re sailing these ocean-going machines inside the Mediterranean Sea, so it's very complicated,” said 11th Hour Racing Team’s Charlie Enright.
On board The Austrian Ocean Race Project | Credit: Stefan Leitner/The Austrian Ocean Race Project/The Ocean Race
“There's not a lot of wind and they don’t go well in not a lot of wind. So you need to squeeze every ounce of performance out of them or you may never get started again if you stop. And we’ve done more manoeuvres in this leg probably than we have in the rest of the race combined already. So it’’s really tricky. And you got to stay on your game.”
There’s more of that to come, with another night of light winds and calm areas forecast before the IMOCA fleet finds its way to Genoa tomorrow, Thursday 17 June.
But further ahead, the seven VO65s continue to make the best of light-to-moderate conditions with the entire fleet of identical one-design yachts now within 100nm of Genoa.
Sailing Team Poland was still in front this afternoon, albeit with a dramatically reduced lead over their nearest rivals, second-placed Team Childhood I (NED) and Mirpuri Foundation racing Team (POR) in third.
The Polish-flagged yacht, skippered by Dutch serial round-the-world racer Bouwe Bekking, has led the VO65 class for the majority of this third leg from Alicante in Spain and at one point was 27nm/50km ahead of the pack. Since yesterday that advantage has been pegged back to just over 7nm at time of publication, and at one point was less than 5nm.
With just over 35nm still to race to Genoa, some 40nm separates the VO65 leader Sailing Team Poland from seventh-placed The Austrian Ocean Race Project (AUT), which is currently the fastest in their class.
The Polish team’s nearest rivals — Team Childhood I, skippered by Simeon Tienpont (NED), and the Yoann Richomme (FRA)-skippered Mirpuri Foundation Ocean Racing — are between 7 and 8nm behind and ready to pounce.
Facing the elements on board Ambersail-2 | Credit: Aiste Ridikaite/Ambersail-2/The Ocean Race
But with the chances high of a breeze shutdown tonight on the approach to Genoa, at this stage none of the chasing fleet can be ruled out of a leg-three podium position.
“We managed to get away from Mallorca and Minorca with the Polish, although they were leading by 10 miles and managed to pull away from the rest of the field by almost, you know, 20 miles…” said Yoann Richomme on board the Mirpuri Foundation boat. “Luck can turn and it’s still a long leg to Genoa.”
“There’s still a lot to fight for,” said navigator Will Harris with the fourth-placed AkzoNobel Ocean Racing. “We’ve got Poland who were 22-23 miles ahead of us last night; now that’s down to 13 miles. So we’ll see kind of how the opportunities come up. But still a whole load of snakes and ladders to play before we get to finish.”
Forty winks for the crew on board VO65 leaders Sailing Poland | Credit: Ewa Fijoleck/Sailing Poland/The Ocean Race
Latest estimates predict that the earliest arrivals in Genoa would be near midnight tonight, but there is significant uncertainty in that ETA. If the wind holds as it is, the leading VO65s could arrive over two hours earlier.
But if the wind dies out as forecast, the boats could be drifting, becalmed, within just miles of the finishing line well into the morning hours.
There will be live coverage of the finishes in Genoa on The Ocean Race YouTube and Facebook platforms as well as www.theoceanrace.com. Track the latest fleet positions on The Ocean Race website HERE.
