The Ocean Race Teams Battle Light, Challenging Conditions in English Channel

17th June 2023

Leg 7 Day 2: Drone’s eye view of Team Holcim-PRB in still waters on Saturday 17 June Credit: Julien Champollion/polaRYSE/Holcim-PRB/The Ocean Race

The five VO65s and three IMOCA boats racing to The Ocean Race Grand Finale in Genoa are battling light and challenging conditions as they work to exit the English Channel and begin the next phase of the race, in more open waters.

At 1000 UTC on Saturday morning (17 June), the VO65 fleet was tight and compressed together, approximately 50 miles west of the leading IMOCA, Team Holcim-PRB.

Team JAJO was nominally in the lead, over Mirpuri-Trifork Racing Team and WindWhisper, but in reality — with boat speeds below four knots — it was all about who would get the next puff wind, the next eddy of favourable current. That would prove to be WindWhisper, which as of Saturday evening is more than 30 miles ahead of the rest.

“It’s really light, it’s the first big transition of the race,” said Max Deckers on Team JAJO. “We’re expecting wind from the west at some point, but until then it’s just about using anything we get — looking for wind. That’s the main thing.”

The IMOCA teams are facing the same situation. They’ve set up slightly further east and south, Benjamin Schwartz and his crew on Team Holcim-PRB extending away from Biotherm (17 miles) and Team Malizia (36 miles).

“We have to find a way through these light winds in the English Channel to the Bay of Biscay,” said Malizia’s Will Harris.

But it’s tough, slow sailing. “We are waiting for some good wind,” was the lament from Marie Riou on board Biotherm.

And the forecast doesn’t offer much respite. Light to (at best) moderate south-southwesterlies are ahead, but this would also mean upwind sailing through the Bay of Biscay, which won’t be fast in terms of making miles toward the goal.

Perhaps it is good practice for the Mediterranean days ahead.

Rankings at 1800 UTC, 17 June

IMOCA:

Team Holcim-PRB, 1,805.1 miles to finish
Biotherm, 17.1 miles to leader 
Team Malizia, 36.1 miles to finish

VO65 :

WindWhisper Racing, 1,787.5 miles to finish
Mirpuri/Trifork Racing Team, 36.6 miles to leader
Austrian Ocean Race - Team Genova, 339.2 miles to leader
Team JAJO, 40.3 miles to leader
Viva México, 46.9 miles to leader

Follow both fleets’ progress via the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.

Published in Ocean Race

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.