Blistering pace for The Ocean Race

(March 11, 2023; Day 14) – It’s been a record-breaking day in The Ocean Race as the four IMOCAs racing through the south are pressing hard to gain position – and points – at the leg 3 scoring gate.

Conditions have certainly been favorable for making big mileage – long hours of daylight, a near perfect wind angle and speed (around 25 knots), and relatively flat water compared to normal Roaring 40s conditions.

At the start of this leg, the fully crewed 24-hour distance record for a monohull up to 60-feet (officially ratified) was 539.71 nautical miles. Earlier this leg, 11th Hour Racing Team raised the stakes with a 544.63 mile day.

But last night and into this morning, those marks have been obliterated by the entire fleet. All four boats have posted more than 572 miles in a 24-hour period.

11th Hour Racing Team set an early marker of 582 miles (and climbing), but Team Holcim-PRB ultimately topped the fleet at at 594.82 nautical miles (subject to ratification from the World Speed Sailing Record Council).

All of this comes as the fleet closes in on the leg 3 scoring gate at 143-degrees east longitude where a full complement of scoring points are on offer and leg leader Kevin Escoffier on Team Holcim-PRB is hoping to continue his perfect mark on the points table.

His lead has diminished massively – down from over 600 miles less than a week ago to just over 130 miles this afternoon, but this number has stabilized over the past 24 hours as the team finds its pace.

“The 0400 UTC position report has just come in… We’ve been kind of short on speed over the last few position reports so we’ve been doing our best to find the next gear and match the other boats,” said Abby Ehler from a loud and fast Holcim-PRB boat.

“Now we just had a really good report and we’re almost 2-3 knots faster over the last hour so that’s good miles gained there.”

Behind the leaders, Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm crew appear to be significantly less secure in second place than they were yesterday. The chasing trio, which they still lead, have compressed to the point where they are separated by just 15 miles. There won’t be much sleep for those crews between now and the gate as every advantage will need to be pressed to maximize potential points.

Team Malizia has been battling to fix an issue where their J3 sail connects to the foredeck – this is important not just to utilize the sail, but as a loadbearing support for the mast. But judging from their speeds, they are not holding back.

The ETA at the scoring gate is now late UTC on March 12.

Leg Three Rankings at 15:45 UTC
1. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to finish, 8223.5 nm
2. Biotherm, distance to lead, 138.5 nm
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 144.4 nm
4. Team Malizia, distance to lead, 148.1 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