Northern Progress for The Ocean Race Fleet as Leg 3 Finish Draws Closer

29th March 2023

Biotherm crossing Cape Horn on Day 30 of Leg 3, Tuesday 28 March Credit: Ronan Gladu/Biotherm/The Ocean Race

After passing Cape Horn and escaping the south, the big-weather challenges haven’t quite ended for The Ocean Race sailors yet.

The leading IMOCA pair — Team Malizia and Team Holcim-PRB — found themselves in what Malizia’s Will Harris called some of the most challenging weather of the leg when they turned north. Gale-force winds and sharp, confused seas.

Separated by just over 10 miles as of 1800 UTC on Wednesday 29 March, the front-running duo are in an intense race that looks to be close all the way to the finish, with the ETA shading towards Sunday 2 April in Itajaí.

On Wednesday, The Ocean Race weather expert Christian Dumard described a situation for the trailing pair where strong winds were racing down the coastal mountains with microburst rain squalls that could see the wind increasing suddenly from 20 knots to more than 40 knots.

“It can be very difficult for the sailors as often you think once you pass Cape Horn things will get easier, but that hasn’t been the case yet,” Dumard said.

On Biotherm, the weather near Cape Horn included snow on the mountains and snow squalls on deck.

“This was a spectacular rounding of Cape Horn because there was so much snow…It was absolutely beautiful. Huge snow squalls coming through,” said Sam Davies on Biotherm.

“It’s a great goal post to get through but as we gybed close to Cape Horn we lost all of our wind instruments and the computer. At the same time there was that massive snow squall so we didn’t have a lot of time to celebrate…”

The team is going old school with the electronics damage, tying ‘woolies’ on the shrouds to show the wind angle.

“A couple of weeks ago it wasn’t certain we’d make it this far,” said 11th Hour Racing Team skipper Charlie Enright, speaking about what getting to Cape Horn meant to him.

“This is a big milestone in the journey of circumnavigating the planet. I’m very proud of our squad and the work that’s been put in…It feels good…And now it’s back to work and 2,000 miles to go!”

Leg Three Rankings at 1800 UTC, 29 March

Team Malizia, distance to finish, 1,271.2 miles
Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 10.7 miles
11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 263.4 miles
Biotherm, distance to lead, 327.8 miles

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

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