The Ocean Race: Record-setting pace

(March 5, 2023; Day 8) – Team Holcim-PRB continues to hold a 500-plus mile lead on leg 3 of The Ocean Race, but the pursuing pack of three is making small gains by pushing forward at record-breaking pace.

11th Hour Racing Team posted a 544.63 nautical mile run over the 24 hours ending in a period ending just after midnight Saturday night (March 4). Should that figure be ratified by the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC) it would be a new certified record for a monohull up to 60-feet. The current record set in 2017 is 536.81 nm.

“It seems the final tally from midnight to midnight UTC, right up to the point we gybed, was 544 nautical miles and an average boatspeed of 22.7 knots, which (unofficially) would be good enough to beat the current standing 60-and-under monohull record for distance sailed in 24 hours, held by Alex Thompson on his IMOCA Hugo Boss,” writes Amory Ross from 11th Hour Racing Team.

“Typically, these records are set in the South Atlantic and the North Atlantic, but we’re excited to have been able to take advantage of a little fine fortune and mother natures’ red carpet, an a glorious day of sunny, fast sailing!”

Climb aboard 11th Hour Racing Team: click here

With the potential record-breaking run, Charlie Enright’s team has pulled into a dead heat with Biotherm for second place, with Team Malizia just 50 miles further back. The southern routing for this pack will soon merge with the northern route of Team Holcim-PRB as it descends to the south but must cross a major blow to consolidate their position.

At the head of the fleet, on board Kevin Escoffier’s Holcim-PRB team, the crew has been working to fix a tear in their J2 headsail, applying a patch over the damaged material.

“This morning we also noticed some damage to the leech line on the mainsail so we dropped the sail to fix that and now we are going to take advantage of the relatively flat sea state to work on the J2,” said Abby Ehler.

“It’s a really hard fix to do – Sam is trying to hold on, but it’s not ideal. Hopefully we get something on there that will at least stop the tear from getting bigger and then we’ll be back on our way.”

Watch the repair: click here

Also getting stuck in to the job list is the GUYOT envrionnement Team Europe technical team, after their boat arrived in Cape Town overnight.

The boat will be hauled ashore and the damaged area will be examined and the rest of the hull will be subjected to NDT (non-destructive testing). After that, the repair plan can be designed.

“We want to join the fleet in Itajaí as soon as possible,” said skipper Benjamin Dutreux. “We are happy that the team was expecting us here. Everyone wants the boat back in the water as soon as possible. We now have to wait for the investigations and see how long the repairs will take.”

Leg Three Rankings at 1800 UTC
1. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to finish, 10630.5 nm
2. Biotherm, distance to lead, 513.2 nm
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 519.4 nm
4. Team Malizia, distance to lead, 571.2 nm
GUYOT environnement – Suspended racing

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