Tension, exhaustion and extreme emotional swings through elation and despair. That’s likely to be the mood on board Team Holcim-PRB and Team Malizia all the way to the Leg 3 finish now on Friday 31 March.
Despite racing hard for over 33 days and over 14,000 miles sailed over ground, neither Boris Herrmann’s Malizia nor Kevin Escoffier’s Holcim-PRB crew have managed to find a winning advantage in this stage of The Ocean Race 2022-23.
To the contrary, they are often sailing within plain sight of each other, and have been exchanging the lead back and forth over the past 48 hours.
“We can see them on the computer, but we can also just see them out the window,” said a very tired Sam Goodchild, speaking about a Malizia team that is staying close like a shadow.
It’s no better on Team Malizia where Boris Herrmann’s team was hoping to take advantage of unexpectedly strong conditions after Cape Horn to gain some separation in conditions that tend to favour the German boat. It hasn’t happened and they are locked in a duel that appears destined to go all the way to the finish line.
“Holcim-PRB is just here,” Herrmann says at one point, pointing slightly behind. “I’m happy to see them there, and not there,” he adds, moving his arm slightly forward.
“We can see a 10-minute average speed on the computer and see if we are faster — green — or slower — red. For the moment we are faster.”
This is close-quarters, short-handed racing of the kind rarely seen on these boats. It will take every ounce of fighting spirit on board these boats to muster the 24/7 energy required to make gains. It is now a question of who can hold on the longest between now and the finishing line.
Further back, things are slightly better for 11th Hour Racing Team who have eked out a 60-mile advantage over Biotherm. Still absurdly close after nearly 14,000 miles of racing, but a measure of breathing room nonetheless.
The ETA is starting to take shape: for the leading IMOCA pair, the most likely scenario is near sunrise in Itajaí on Sunday 2 April (near noon UTC). The second pair is approximately one day behind, and looking at a Monday finish.
GUYOT environnement - Team Europe arrives in Itajaí on Thursday 10 March two weeks after a repair on the hull in Cape Town | Credit: Alexander Champy-McLean/The Ocean Race
Meanwhile, GUYOT environnement – Team Europe’s IMOCA arrived in the Brazilian city of Itajaí after a two-week, 3,500-nautical mile delivery trip across the South Atlantic Ocean from Cape Town in South Africa.
The European team — led by Benjamin Dutreux (FRA) and Robert Stanjek (GER) — was forced out of Leg 3 three days in after discovering delamination to the bottom of the hull of the 2015-built yacht.
After arriving back in Cape Town four days later, the team made a full assessment of the damage before embarking on a painstaking repair operation to put the boat back in full racing trim.
Despite the setback of missing Leg 3, the team is in good spirits and committed to rejoining the race for the fourth leg from Itajaí to Newport, Rhode Island which starts on 23 April.
Leg Three Rankings at 1900 UTC, 30 March
- Team Malizia, distance to finish, 545.4 miles
- Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 5.9 miles
- 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 373.6 miles
- Biotherm, distance to lead, 434.6 miles
Find the latest fleet positions on the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.
