It was the last thing they needed: a quick, deepening low-pressure system bringing winds in excess of 40 knots, a sickening sea state and another massive challenge for IMOCA sailors operating on the 34th day of racing in Leg 3 of The Ocean Race 2022-23.

But that was the state of play overnight on Friday night. It was no April Fool’s joke.

It meant an exhausting, pressure-filled night, trying to compete for points while making sure the boat and crew could make it to the finish line.

“This is the final push — push, push, push!” said Malizia’s skipper Boris Herrmann. “I’m trying to keep the boat upright and balanced under the sails… I have to confess, I’m a bit tense. You don’t want to make a mistake now, here.”

With the competition so close, teams are being circumspect about how much damage they have suffered. It’s a competitive advantage to hide your vulnerabilities from the competition, but nobody has raced 15,000 hard miles unscathed.

There is no doubt that every boat is operating at less than 100 per cent. And every crew member is being asked to give more, well past their comfort level.

For example, Team Holcim-PRB dropped miles to Team Malizia on Friday evening (31 March). After the boats had raced in lockstep since Cape Horn, it was unusual to see Malizia quickly stretch out to 30-plus miles.

It’s not hard to imagine some level of damage on board as a contributing factor — and it could already be the leg-winning difference for Boris Herrmann’s team.

Both teams pushed close to the shore to escape the worst of the weather, but still experienced gale-force winds and a punishing sea state.

Further back, in the fight for third place, we know Biotherm hit an object Friday evening and damaged their port foil. The fact that 11th Hour Racing Team hasn’t added to its lead in a meaningful way would indicate Charlie Enright’s squad is probably operating at a level less than 100 per cent as well.

It would be impossible to overstate how challenging this last run up the coast has been. Since Cape Horn the teams have been in a constant battle. Normally the turn to the north provides a respite from the Southern Ocean and a return to a week of tactical racing to the finish.

This year, it has been a continuous series of new challenges to be met by crews and boats who have been pushed long past their operational limits. The finish line off the Ocean Live Park in Itajai can’t come soon enough.

The ETA for the winning boat is between 0200 and 0800 local time Sunday morning in Itajaí — 0600 to noon UTC on Sunday 2 April. Regardless of final arrival time, a very warm welcome is awaiting in Itajaí.

Live coverage of the finish will be available via a player in The Ocean Race blog on Eurosport.com.

Leg Three Rankings at 1620 UTC, 1 April

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 194.1 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 66.8 miles
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 474.68 miles
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 579.6 miles

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

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

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 545.4 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 5.9 miles
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 373.6 miles
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 434.6 miles

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

As the calendar ticks over to the 33rd day of competition on Leg 3 of The Ocean Race 2022-23, Team Malizia and Team Holcim-PRB are as close as ever.

On the 1700 UTC tracker update on Thursday 30 March, the IMOCA pair were separated by a fraction of a nautical mile on the leaderboard.

And it’s a tense time, with very changeable conditions.

“We’ve had crazy conditions all night,” said Will Harris from Team Malizia. “Everything from zero to 52 knots of wind from every direction. It’s been pretty tough… But we’re going good. Strong now.”

“We’ve seen quite a quick increase in breeze,” said Abby Ehler on Team Holcim-PRB. “More that we were expecting, between 48 and 50 knots of wind… The seaway is not too bad so we’re not slamming too bad, but we’re going to play it safe.”

“We haven’t been pushing too, too much,” agreed skipper Kevin Escoffier. “We had gusts of 50-55 knots, pretty heavy night. Tonight it was quite windy.”

But soon after there was the sound of sails flapping back and forth with very little wind; tough conditions for the teams.

Just over 350 miles behind, 11th Hour Racing Team has started to put some distance between itself and Biotherm, with both now nearly a full day behind the leading pair.

“We’re definitely going north as fast as we can right now,” said 11th Hour Racing Team sailor Simon Fisher. “The water temperature is creeping up slowly, so I think two more days of thermal clothing but we’re making good progress!”

Also making good progress is GUYOT environnement - Team Europe on their delivery from South Africa to Itajaí, Brazil where the team will rejoin the race for Leg 4. The GUYOT team was expected to arrive in Itajaí late in the afternoon local time today.

As the fleet heads north with an ETA on Sunday 2 April, The Ocean Live Park in Itajaí opened to the public on Wednesday evening (29 March).

Leg Three Rankings at 1700 UTC, 30 March

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 896.7 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 0.2 miles
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 362.8 miles
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 499.5 miles

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

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

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 1,271.2 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 10.7 miles
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 263.4 miles
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 327.8 miles

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

Team Malizia continues to head the leaderboard in Leg 3 of The Ocean Race 2022-23 after leading the fleet around Cape Horn.

On Tuesday (28 March) it was 11th Hour Racing Team (1255 UTC) and Biotherm (1525 UTC) who took their turn passing the iconic landmark and joining the exclusive list of offshore sailors to have rounded the Horn.

The IMOCA fleet has really split in two now, with Malizia fighting to fend off overall race leader Team Holcim-PRB. Meanwhile, 11th Hour Racing Team holding a slim advantage over Biotherm — but both are nearly a day behind the leading pair.

“It is nice to still be fighting against Biotherm,” said Justine Mettraux on 11th Hour Racing Team, who rounded Cape Horn for the first time.

“There are still 2,000 miles not go after the Cape to Itajaí so still a lot to play for. It is nice to have a bit softer winds, despite it meaning the leaders are moving away from us. We are back to full main, big sails, and trying to get the most of the wind we have at the moment, but they are pretty unstable conditions with a lot of clouds.

“It is cold, though! Hard to dry anything but nice, beautiful lights, birds again because we are getting close to shore. We are seeing more albatrosses and petrels which is nice.”

“It’s been tough to have 11th Hour Racing pass us, but today is better — we’re going to pass Cape Horn,” Paul Meilhat said. “The boat is not 100% but it’s not bad. We are really proud of the work we have done. One year ago we were putting layers in the boat mould and today we are racing past Cape Horn. Already this is a victory.”

Nearly 400 miles north, Kevin Escoffier was getting back into race mode after celebrating his third rounding of the Horn.

“The main challenge is still to get to Itajaí,” he said. “The weather can change rapidly. Rather than looking for weather systems that move very quickly and that can change direction, we’d rather go on the northern route. Always protecting the boat and the crew.”

Will Harris on Team Malizia is enjoying the burden of being in the lead, being chased by a Holcim-PRB team that has a perfect points record in the race to date.

“We’ve been sailing our own strategy,” he said. “We’re not at the point where we would match race them. There’s still five or six days left in this leg — there’s a lot that can happen so we have to sail our own race. The easiest way to finish ahead of them is to give ourselves an opportunity jump ahead by a few miles. We have to do what we think is right and play our own game.”

Leg Three Rankings at 1900 UTC, 28 March

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 1,505.3 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 23.9 miles
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 358.7 miles
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 393.9 miles

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

Team Malizia — who were contemplating a return to Cape Town after mast damage in the first days of Leg 3, and who approached Cape Horn today nursing an injured crew member — have overcome all these obstacles and more to lead The Ocean Race IMOCA fleet past the iconic landmark.

“It’s a huge achievement for the whole team to be here,” said Malizia’s Will Harris with his team approached the Horn. “And especially to be here in the lead.

“If we think back to the start of the leg — the issues with the mast, and then the big winds the last few days — I think we’ve done an amazing job to be here. So we are proud of the full team to make it this far and also grateful to everyone back on land who has made this possible.

“It’s really cold down here at the moment. It’s slightly lighter winds, which is a relief after the last few days of pretty brutal conditions. And I hope as we get around the Horn, it will be calm enough that we get a good view of it. First bit of land we’ve seen in 30 days.”

Team Malizia passed the longitude of Cape Horn at 16:23 UTC on Monday 27 March — 29 days, four hours and eight minutes after the start in Cape Town.

In the process of leading around the Horn, Malizia skipper Boris Herrmann and his team join the ‘legends of the south’ as winners of the Roaring Forties Trophy, which is awarded for the fastest passage between the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and Cape Horn in South America. The Malizia crew took the Cape to Cape title in 27 days, 17 hours and 31 minutes.

With Leg 3 being the longest leg in the history of The Ocean Race, this marks the first time the trophy will be awarded for a non-stop passage between the two capes that mark the eastern and western boundaries of the south Atlantic Ocean.

Racing in the southern latitudes — what The Ocean Race sailors call the Southern Ocean — is never easy. Each and every passage of Cape Horn has to be earned, and this race has been no different.

On Sunday (26 March), Team Malizia had a scary situation on board when Rosalin Kuiper was thrown from her bunk and hit her head, suffering a cut and a concussion. Fortunately, with the support of expert medical advice, the team was able to close the wound and Rosie has been able to rest and recuperate. Early indications are that she is recovering well on board.

Incredibly, on the 30th day of racing in Leg 3, Team Malizia have crossed the longitude of Cape Horn with a lead of less than 20 miles over Team Holcim-PRB, with both boats finally gaining some separation from Biotherm and 11th Hour Racing Team who have dropped 250 miles behind.

“It will be a fight all the way up to the finish in Itajaí,” is the assessment from Harris. “Team Holcim-PRB is only a few miles behind us. They’re doing an amazing job of pushing us as well. We’ll need our best game. It’s a long way to go — 2,000 miles — and we’re looking forward to it.”

The light conditions which have hurt Biotherm and 11th Hour Racing Team over the past 12 hours are expected to give way to stronger winds. But at 250 miles behind, their passage of Cape Horn is still some 18 hours away, now expected on Tuesday morning UTC (28 March).

Leg Three Rankings at 1800 UTC, 27 March

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 1,916.7 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 21.1 miles
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 277.8 miles
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 283.8 miles

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

After 48 hours of building wind and seas, with gusts over 40 knots and waves approaching seven metres, conditions were starting to moderate on Sunday (26 March) with The Ocean Race fleet turning south to squeeze between Cape Horn and the ice exclusion zone.

The wind is in the 18-22-knot range and the waves are five metres and decreasing. That’s still plenty of motion on an IMOCA, making movement on board difficult but slightly better than over the past day.

And there is now a good chance the passage of Cape Horn could be quite light and tricky in very changeable conditions.

No matter the conditions, and whether this is a first passage or a fifth or sixth, Cape Horn remains an iconic milestone in the career of an sailor.

On the race course on Sunday, the fleet is diving south. Starting the day at 52 degrees south latitude, they’ll need to find 56 degrees south to make it around the Horn on Monday (27 March).

11th Hour Racing Team is trailing the fleet and furthest west, while the leader, Team Malizia is the most easterly boat, 200 nautical miles closer to South America.

Amory Ross, from 11th Hour Racing Team, reports from the American boat: “For the last 48 hours we have been surrounded by towering waves and wind-blown seas far more typical of the Furious Fifties, and visually at least it finally looks like the place we all came here to see.

“As gruelling as constant 35-45 knots of wind and the minefield of giant holes in the ocean around us can be, it’s part of what makes the Horn meaningful: you have to have earned it. 27 days is a long time in the cold south and we have had our fair share of issues to overcome, but I don’t think we have seen true ‘Southern Ocean’ conditions, until now.”

The 11th Hour team suffered more mainsail problems, accounting for their slower pace compared to their rivals. But they’re determined to ease the boat around Cape Horn and rejoining the fight for points on the final push to Itajaí.

“We’re fighting for every single mile and we need to make sure that we gain all that we can at the moment,” said Will Harris on Team Malizia. “It’s not about pushing the boat past its limit. It’s about working it hard in the conditions we have — being active on the pilot and on the trimming…We have to keep working it.

“It’s nice and sunny, the boat is in one piece and we’re in first place, so there is a lot of positives to think about today.”

It’s been a bit more harrowing on board Biotherm, as Sam Davies explains: “We had some really squally conditions with over 40 knots. Going down a big wave, the boat spun out, and gybed — twice — and as a result we damaged one of the traveller cars for the mainsheet which is what we had repaired at the start in Cape Town.

“We also broke one of the battens in the mainsail. A traveller car also caught on the tent of the cockpit and ripped the bottom joint away so we have more water coming in and lots of cold air, so it’s freezing.

“We will need to repair the batten and the traveller car as soon as the sea state decreases. It was proper Southern Ocean conditions — 40 knots of wind, eight-metre breaking waves. It’s just about the limit of what’s acceptable in an IMOCA and way beyond what is comfortable. But the boats are designed for this and luckily it’s been short-lived…”

Finding that balance between pushing and preserving has been the focus on Team Holcim-PRB as well.

“It’s been stressful,” Sam Goodchild said. “Trying to find the limit of what the boat is capable of doing. We don’t want to break the boat but obviously we want to go fast as we’re racing and trying to find that balance is easier said than done.”

As conditions moderate, there will be time to make the necessary repairs and plan the passage north to Itajaí. But first it’s time to push to Cape Horn — an iconic milestone for each of The Ocean Race sailors.

Meanwhile, The Ocean Race has paid tribute to John Fisher, the Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag crew member who was lost overboard in the Southern Ocean some 1,400 nautical miles west of Cape Horn on this day five years ago.

“John, his family and friends are remembered today by everyone in The Ocean Race family, especially those who had the honour of sharing time with him either on the water or dockside,” the race said in a statement.

Leg Three Rankings at 1900 UTC, 26 March

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 2,222.8 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 42.1 miles
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 156.2 miles
4. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 219 miles

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

It’s the final weekend in southern latitudes, in the waters the sailors in The Ocean Race call the Southern Ocean.

In these Furious 50s, the winds and waves are on a one-way track from west to east around Antarctica, the continuous train of low-pressure systems generating wind and waves that are the stuff of legend.

Cape Horn is where it all comes to a head: the land juts to the south and there is a shelf where the sea bed rises from 5,000 metres to less than half that in Drake Passage to the south and to just a few hundred metres if you pass further north and closer to land.

This is where The Ocean Race IMOCA fleet is headed; the latest ETA is Monday afternoon/evening UTC (27 March).

The sailors are getting a final taste of the south this weekend, with winds a steady gale force 35 knots (65 km/h) and gusting to 45 knots (85 km/h).

On the race course, Team Malizia has edged out ahead of Team Holcim-PRB and Biotherm, with 11th Hour Racing Team sliding back over the past 36 hours. The spread from first to fourth is now over 100 miles, but as we’ve seen before in this leg, another compression is forecast with the leading boats expected to push into lighter wind around Cape Horn.

“We are now on the last long downwind sailing part, heading to Cape Horn, with the last low pressure system that will take us to the Horn Passage,” Team Holcim-PRB skipper Kevin Escoffier said.

“We are still in contact with Malizia who are a little faster than us in these conditions. We knew that we had a versatile boat, and that they have a sailboat that is suited to this kind of conditions. Our strategy is to take it easy without trying to do something you can’t do with the boat.”

“We’re flying down the waves in 30 to 40 knots of wind,” Will Harris screamed on the deck of Malizia where he was tying in some lines to tidy up the reef in the mainsail. “Full speed. This is epic! This is the true south. Albatross, five-metre waves…whoop!”

“Unfortunately, we’re bleeding miles to the others, being underpowered because we’re running with two reefs in the mainsail when it would be better to be on one,” said Charlie Enright on 11th Hour Racing Team, lamenting the damage to their mainsail that prevents them from sailing with a single reef.

“But we’re certainly in a better spot than after we passed through the scoring gate [to the south of Australia]. What the crew, and Jack [Bouttell] in particular, have been able to do and repair has been pretty amazing. We’re determined to eke out every ounce of performance from the boat, and it’s been cool to be racing within sight of the other boats.

“There’s 20 of us down here in this remote part of the world, and yes we’re rivals, but we’re also friends, we’re family. There’s a camaraderie between all of us, good banter on the radio, and it feels good for all of us to be down here together in this crazy part of the world.”

The forecast is for conditions to remain very strong over the weekend, with winds beginning to moderate on Sunday (26 March) before easing significantly on Monday, leaving the possibility of a relatively easy passage of Cape Horn later in the day.

Leg Three Rankings at 1900 UTC, 25 March

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 2,606.3 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 20.4 miles
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 85.5 miles
4. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 105.8 miles

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

The IMOCA teams have the end of the hardest part of the longest leg in the history of The Ocean Race in sight.

On Friday afternoon UTC (24 March), the most iconic of landmarks to offshore sailors — Cape Horn — lies just over 1,000 miles to the east.

But those miles won’t come easily. Gale-force winds and six- to eight-metre seas are on the menu for the weekend, before the sailors can expect to pass Cape Horn on Monday morning (27 March).

Team Malizia is 10 miles ahead of Team Holcim-PRB with both boats to the north of Biotherm and 11th Hour Racing Team, some 50 miles behind to the southwest.

“We’re attacking the last long downwind leg towards Cape Horn, with the last low pressure system that will take us as far as the Horn,” Team Holcim-PRB skipper Kevin Escoffier said.

“We’re going to gradually climb into conditions that are more like the south, with about 30-35 knots of wind and seas that will reach seven meters. Solid conditions, as you would expect from coming this far.

“The important thing now is to take care of the boat, take care of the crew and stay in touch with the competitors. Fast, but not furious.”

In fact, this is in line with another memorable reminder the crew of 11th Hour Racing Team has come up with: “Nothing silly before Chile.”

It seems all are in agreement that after a month at sea, the main goal must be getting out of the southern latitudes safely and with boats in good shape for the final push north to the finish in Itajaí, Brazil.

The weather forecast is for conditions to escalate on Saturday (25 March) with trailing winds near 35 knots, gusting into the mid-40s, and a sea state over six metres, before moderating slightly on Sunday (26 March) and again into more a manageable state for the actual passage of Cape Horn on Monday UTC.

Leg Three Rankings at 1900 UTC, 24 March

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 2,908.4 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 14.1 miles
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 69.6 miles
4. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 75.9 miles

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

For 50 years of The Ocean Race, sailors have considered the Southern Ocean leg — the racing that takes place between Cape Town and Cape Horn, deep in the southern latitudes — as the biggest milestone in the event.

Rounding Cape Horn marks the end of the southern conditions, where deep low-pressure systems follow one after the other, unimpeded by land masses, the gale force winds building towering, fearsome seas.

Icebergs are to the south and the leg culminates with a squeeze around Cape Horn, where the land juts as far as 56 degrees south latitude, funnelling the winds and waves through a narrow passage firmly in the area sailors call the Furious 50s.

At the end of this week, conditions are expected to live up that name.

“The fleet is probably going into the toughest days of the race so far, with very aggressive weather between now and Cape Horn at the end of the weekend,” said race director Phil Lawrence.

“The wind is going to increase above 30 knots, gusting 40 knots, and we can expect six- to seven-metre waves on Friday and Saturday,” said Christian Dumard, the meteorolgist for The Ocean Race.

“I think we can expect the fleet will stay a little bit north of the ice exclusion zone to avoid the worst sea state as the wind gets even stronger.”

Dumard said that during the approach to Cape Horn on the weekend, the wind will be strong, 25 knots or so, before easing dramatically, and the sea state should moderate in turn.

“Cape Horn is a massive benchmark in sailing for anyone who is passionate about offshore racing. It’s the pinnacle,” said Francesca Clapcich, a member of 11th Hour Racing Team crew who isn’t on board for this leg, but was available for media on Thursday (23 March) to reflect on her experience in the last race.

“Last race, I remember, it was a mix of emotions. I was going around for the first time and coming from such a different sailing background — racing dinghies — I had barely ever dreamed about it…

“You feel proud but also it’s such a relief to be there with the boat and the people all in one piece. And then you turn to the north and the layers of clothes start to come off as it gets warmer and the weather gets nicer and of course you’re doing it in a team environment so it is awesome as you have a chance to share it with everyone on board.”

On the race course, the competition is still very close, with Biotherm pushing about 40 miles to the south of Team Holcim-PRB and Team Malizia. 11th Hour Racing Team has fallen off the pace ever so slightly on Thursday, now about 35 miles behind to the west.

Biotherm suffered a tear in their fractional headsail, as skipper Paul Meilhat explained in a French interview: “We had two reefs and the FRO [fractional code zero]. There was a steep wave and we had a serious nose-dive. When the boat came out of it, the sail was practically torn in two at the foot. We managed to roll it and put it back in the bag, and we then hoisted a smaller sail.

“This was our first warning shot of this big low pressure system… I think it will be reparable in Itajaí but not now, we won’t be able to fix it at sea.”

This is unlikely to be the last of the drama in the next days — the approach to Cape Horn nearly always adds a final challenge — so stay tuned. The ETA for the IMOCA fleet is overnight Sunday night (26 March) into Monday morning UTC (27 March).

Leg Three Rankings at 1900 UTC, 23 March

1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 3,374.6 miles
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 12.4 miles
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 16.2 miles
4. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 35.3 miles

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