Light winds continue for The Ocean Race

(March 18, 2023; Day 21) – The third leg of The Ocean Race now finds the four IMOCAs separated by just 20 nautical miles.

The teams still have two weeks of racing to go, but with the positions so close, this weekend is serving as a re-start of sorts. The lighter conditions which have compressed the fleet together have also given the crews time to complete much needed maintenance and repairs – on boats and people alike.

There is also some maneuvering as the fleet has gotten lifted on port, with both Team Malizia and 11th Hour Racing taking gybes south to re-position alongside the ice exclusion boarder.

The wind is forecast to return in two days and the ETA for Cape Horn is now March 26 or 27.

“We have Biotherm just over there and Team Holcim-PRB just down to leeward,” said Will Harris from the sunshine on deck of Team Malizia.

“The wind is coming behind us with these clouds,” he said, pointing behind the boat. “And if you look in front of us there is nice sunny weather, but that’s the high-pressure up ahead with not much wind. That’s why we’ve all compressed and the fleet has really shrunk down together.

“We’re effectively re-starting the race, which is good and bad. We can fight for the lead, but at the same time, we’ve lost our lead over the ones behind.”

Indeed, Malizia enjoyed a few hours at the top of the tracker leaderboard last night UTC, but in reality, all four teams now have the potential to emerge with the advantage by the time the more typical southern latitude conditions return early in the new week.

Leg Three Rankings at 14:00 UTC
1. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to finish, 5235.3 nm
2. Biotherm, distance to lead, 3.6 nm
3. Team Malizia, distance to lead, 13.9 nm
4. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 18.0 nm
GUYOT environnement – withdrawn from Leg 3

Race details – Route – Tracker – Teams – Content from the boats – YouTube

IMOCA: Boat, Design, Skipper, Launch date
• Guyot Environnement – Team Europe (VPLP Verdier); Benjamin Dutreux (FRA)/Robert Stanjek (GER); September 1, 2015
• 11th Hour Racing Team (Guillaume Verdier); Charlie Enright (USA); August 24, 2021
• Holcim-PRB (Guillaume Verdier); Kevin Escoffier (FRA); May 8, 2022
• Team Malizia (VPLP); Boris Herrmann (GER); July 19, 2022
• Biotherm (Guillaume Verdier); Paul Meilhat (FRA); August 31 2022

The Ocean Race 2022-23 Race Schedule:
Alicante, Spain – Leg 1 (1900 nm) start: January 15, 2023
Cabo Verde – ETA: January 22; Leg 2 (4600 nm) start: January 25
Cape Town, South Africa – ETA: February 9; Leg 3 (12750 nm) start: February 26
Itajaí, Brazil – ETA: April 1; Leg 4 (5500 nm) start: April 23
Newport, RI, USA – ETA: May 10; Leg 5 (3500 nm) start: May 21
Aarhus, Denmark – ETA: May 30; Leg 6 (800 nm) start: June 8
Kiel, Germany (Fly-By) – June 9
The Hague, The Netherlands – ETA: June 11; Leg 7 (2200 nm) start: June 15
Genova, Italy – The Grand Finale – ETA: June 25, 2023; Final In-Port Race: July 1, 2023

The Ocean Race (formerly Volvo Ocean Race and Whitbread Round the World Race) was initially to be raced in two classes of boats: the high-performance, foiling, IMOCA 60 class and the one-design VO65 class which has been used for the last two editions of the race.

However, only the IMOCAs will be racing round the world while the VO65s will race in The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint which competes in Legs 1, 6, and 7 of The Ocean Race course.

Additionally, The Ocean Race also features the In-Port Series with races at seven of the course’s stopover cities around the world which allow local fans to get up close and personal to the teams as they battle it out around a short inshore course.

Although in-port races do not count towards a team’s overall points score, they do play an important part in the overall rankings as the In-Port Race Series standings are used to break any points ties that occur during the race around the world.

The 14th edition of The Ocean Race was originally planned for 2021-22 but was postponed one year due to the pandemic, with the first leg starting on January 15, 2023.

Source: The Ocean Race