Whitbread history comes full circle

Cowes, UK (April 16, 2024) – The teams are finishing the fourth and final leg of the 2023-24 Ocean Globe Race, completing the 6599 nm course from Punta del Este, Uruguay. The anticipated finish of the 58-foot Maiden occurred today at 10:52 UTC after 41 days, and while just fifth in both line honors and handicap, she is positioned to claim overall honors of the round the world race.

Maiden is currently in second place with a corrected elapsed time of 179d 1h 24m, with the Swan 53 Triana at the top of the ranking. The French yacht Triana would need to cross the finish line around 0500hrs UTC on April 22 to hold onto their current first place and take the prize.

Trailing by 800 miles, Triana needs to maintain around a 5.8 knot average speed all the way to the finish line to achieve this – otherwise Maiden may take the title. The IRC handicap overall leader is considered the winner of the OGR.

Heather Thomas and her all-female crew had said from race start they were “in it to win it” and she was not wrong – always ranking in the top half of the fleet. Leg 1 they came in third in line honors and IRC. Leg 2, fourth in line honors and IRC and Leg 3, Auckland to Punta del Este second in line honors and 4th in IRC.

It was extra poignant for Maiden to arrive back in UK waters, in a race celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first Whitbread Round the World race. Maiden made headlines in the 1989 Whitbread when Tracy Edwards MBE, skippered the iconic yacht around the world with an all-female crew. She defied doubters and cynics, winning two leg victories in Division D and going on to become the first woman to receive the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy.

Edwards was undeniably bursting with pride as she watched her yacht and crew arrive back safely.

“I was delighted for the girls, they looked great coming in,” she noted. “I’m unspeakably proud of them, when they crossed the finishing line, they all had their national flags. Of course, it brings back memories as I knew how they were feeling.

“That stretch of water from The Needles to the finish line is like the longest stretch of water in the world. You’ve just done 33,000 miles around the world, but you think about that stretch and go when is this going to end. But it’s all just amazing.”

Event information – Race rules – Entry list – Tracker

No longer racing:
• Swan 51 Godspeed (USA) – retired after Leg 1

The 2023-24 Ocean Globe Race (OGR) is a fully crewed, retro race, in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race, marking the 50th Anniversary of the original event. Racing without computers, GPS, and high-tech materials, they navigate with sextants and paper charts. Seven of the fleet are former Whitbread competitors.

Starting in Southampton (UK) on September 10, the OGR is a 27,000-mile sprint around the Globe, divided into four legs that passes south of the three great Capes. The fleet is divided in three classes with stop-overs in Cape Town, South Africa; Auckland, New Zealand; and Punta del Este, Uruguay before returning to Southhampton in April 2024.

2023-24 Ocean Globe Race:
FIRST LEG: Start 10 September 2023. 7800 miles. First boats finish 9-21 October 2023.
SECOND LEG: Start 5 November 2023. 7250 miles. First boats finish 14-23 December 2023.
THIRD LEG: Start 14 January 2024. 6500 miles. First boats finish 9-14 February 2024.
FOURTH LEG: Start 5 March. 6550 miles. Finish 1-10 April 2024.