All lined up in the South Pacific

(March 19, 2023; Day 22) – The re-start of The Ocean Race took on a new meaning today in Leg 3 as the four teams are lined up on a 13 mile line extending north to south. After three weeks of racing, they are separated by less than 3 miles on the leaderboard.

The reason for the close racing remains a stubbornly persistent ridge of high pressure and its light wind that is acting as a barrier to the teams making progress to the east.

In these conditions, the wind is marginally stronger to the south, so the teams have been taking it in turns to gybe south, dropping down the leaderboard by a few miles as they move towards the ice exclusion zone, before making gains back when the next team dives south.

This should remain the dominant weather pattern until tomorrow when the ridge begins to dissipate and stronger winds return.

“There is a ridge of high pressure in front of us and a low pressure behind, so we are stuck a bit in the middle,” is the way Biotherm skipper Paul Meilhat explains the situation.

In the relatively calm conditions, teams are doing repairs, boat, and mast checks and plenty of drone flying. For 11th Hour Racing Team, that included fixing cracks in their hull and rudder and patching the mainsail luff tear at the first reef which allows the sail to be at full hoist again.

When Team Malizia’s Rosie Kuiper went up the mast, she could see all four boats from the top of the rig, for example.

While the past couple of days provided a respite from typical southern latitude conditions, the forecast shows this will be short-lived, with the breeze coming on again to start the week.

The latest weather routings have the teams passing Cape Horn by March 26 or 27, while the ETA in Itajaí, Brazil – with less certainty – is the first weekend in April.

Leg Three Rankings at 21:00 UTC
1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 4865.9 nm
2. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 1.9 nm
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 2.9 nm
4. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 3.4 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GUYOT environnement – withdrawn from Leg 3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