Successful repairs for The Ocean Race team in Cape Town

(March 10, 2023; Day 13) – While The Ocean Race has four IMOCAs now sprinting across the southern oceans toward Cape Horn, the repair of GUYOT environnement – Team Europe has gone faster than expected.

Since arriving back to Cape Town on March 4 to repair a delaminated area on the port side of the hull, non-destructive testing revealed no additional damage, so the work at the improvised construction site progressed quickly for the yacht.

The departure for Itajaí is planned on March 16 which will have the team there in time for the start of the fourth leg of The Ocean Race on April 23.

“The repair has progressed really well,” reported skipper Benjamin Dutreux. “The team did a very good, fast, and strong job. The lamination work was completed this morning. Now a few more bumps will be filled and the laminated area will be in good shape, then the painters can start work.”

On March 12, the team will then start craning the yacht back into the water, setting the mast and refitting the yacht.

“We had an optimistic and a pessimistic plan for the work,” said Dutreux. “Everything went according to the optimistic plan. I’m very proud of the team and can’t wait to get to Itajaí and rejoin the fleet.

“The damage has been limited to the area that the NDT survey showed. We took out the Nomex honeycomb material, replaced it with foam and laminated the area with five layers of carbon. On the inside, the yacht has been additionally reinforced.”

The repaired yacht will set off from Cape Town on the passage to Brazil with Sébastien Simon and Phillip Kasüske from the sailing crew and Jimmy le Baut and Clovis Gautier from the tech team along with onboard reporter Charles Drapeau.

Leg Three Rankings at 16:00 UTC
1. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to finish, 8790.9 nm
2. Biotherm, distance to lead, 119.8 nm
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 132.5 nm
4. Team Malizia, distance to lead, 141.6 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GUYOT environnement – withdrawn from Leg 3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