It’s been a profitable 24 hours for Poland’s WindWhisper Racing Team, which has escaped from the rest of the boats racing towards the Grand Finale of The Ocean Race 2022-23 in Genoa and stretched out to a lead of over 150 nautical miles over its nearest pursuers in the VO65 fleet.
In the short term, however, the forecast isn’t in the team’s favour. The wind was expected to ease dramatically in the western Mediterranean over the course of Thursday (22 June) before shifting from the westerly that has pushed them into the Med to an east-northeasterly that they’ll need to fight to make progress toward Italy.
The calm patch will apply to the chasing boats as well, who may need to battle this transition along with unfavourable tidal current in the Strait of Gibraltar depending on their arrival. And a later arrival could mean tacking into a building headwind.
On the approach to Gibraltar, Team Holcim-PRB is leading the IMOCAs, but at 1800 UTC was in danger of losing miles to both Biotherm — just 2.4 nautical miles astern — and Team Malizia.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to catch up to the others,” said Malizia’s Will Harris looking ahead at the transition. “There will be a light wind area and maybe a chance for us to play a card and gain some miles if we find better wind. We’ll see what we find.”
The light and somewhat fickle winds are taking a toll on the crews. On the VO65 Team JAJO, currently battling with Mirpuri/Trifork Racing Team and Viva México for second position in the VO65 Sprint, the night showed a loss, in very close-quarters racing.
“It’s been very painful,” admitted JAJO’s Jorden van Rooijen. “On the way to Gibraltar, we’ve been battling Mirpuri/Trifork all night. We had them seven miles behind us and now they just got a little bit of pressure, overtook us, a super-close battle, one boat length apart, and now they’re just in front of us.. So we have to get them back!”
That was before JAJO’s encounter with the one of the area’s now infamous orcas, responsible for a spate of attacks on boats since spring. Thankfully boat and crew — and orca — are unharmed.
Rankings at 1800 UTC, 22 June
IMOCA:
- Team Holcim-PRB, 854.8 miles to finish
- Biotherm, 2.4 miles to leader
- Team Malizia, 14.6 miles to leader
VO65 :
- WindWhisper Racing, 706.6 miles to finish
- Mirpuri/Trifork Racing Team, 145 miles to leader
- Team JAJO, 145.8 miles to leader
- Viva México, 146.7 miles to leader
- Austrian Ocean Race - Team Genova, 157.8 miles to leader
Follow both fleets’ progress via the race tracker at theoceanrace.com.
