STOPOVER: The Ocean Race, Episode 3

The Ocean Race 2023 will be featured in STOPOVER, a documentary series which will follow the five IMOCA teams in this crewed round the world race. Produced by the IMOCA class, the series spans eight episodes filmed at the start and at each stopover, exploring the repercussions of the previous leg and anticipate the next.

This third episode takes you into the heart of the preparation of the five IMOCA teams in Cape Town, now off to tackle the 12,750-mile leg in the Southern Seas.

On the program, a climb up Table Mountain with Team Malizia, Holcim-PRB’s victory, Guyot environnement – Team Europe’s sail repair, the question of 11th Hour Racing’s foils, the pressure mounting on Biotherm, and many more moments around the life of sailors, their families and their teams, all seen through the eyes of polaRYSE and their cameras.

Episode highlights:
• The sailors: Benjamin Dutreux (Guyot Environnement-Team Europe), Sam Davies and Anthony Marchand (Biotherm).
• The On Board Reporters: Ronan Gladu (Biotherm)
• The shore teams with a focus here on Corentin Cusant and Rebecca Sainson (Team Malizia), Etienne Moy (Biotherm), James O’Mahony and Jean-Martin Grisar (11th Hour Racing Team), Jimmy Le Baut (Guyot Environnement-Team Europe)

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 start: January 15, 2023
Cabo Verde – ETA: January 22; Leg 2 start: January 25
Cape Town, South Africa – ETA: February 9; Leg 3 start: February 26 or 27 (TBC)
Itajaí, Brazil – ETA: April 1; Leg 4 start: April 23
Newport, RI, USA – ETA: May 10; Leg 5 start: May 21
Aarhus, Denmark – ETA: May 30; Leg 6 start: June 8
Kiel, Germany (Fly-By) – June 9
The Hague, The Netherlands – ETA: June 11; Leg 7 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: IMOCA