Getting furious for The Ocean Race

(March 23, 2023; Day 26) – For 50 years of The Ocean Race, sailors have considered the racing between Cape Town and Cape Horn, deep in the southern latitudes, as the biggest milestone in the event.

Rounding Cape Horn marks the end of the southern conditions, where deep low pressure systems follow one after the other, unimpeded by land masses, the gale force winds building towering, fearsome seas.

Icebergs are to the south and the leg culminates with a squeeze around Cape Horn, where the land juts as far as 56-degrees south latitude, funneling the winds and waves through a narrow passage firmly in the area sailors call the Furious 50s.

As the four IMOCAs approach this tip of South America, conditions are expected to live up to that name.

“The fleet is probably going into the toughest days of the race so far, with very aggressive weather between now and Cape Horn at the end of the weekend,” said Race Director Phil Lawrence.

“The wind is going to increase above 30 knots, gusting 40 knots, and we can expect 6 to 7 metre waves on Friday and Saturday (March 24-25),” said Christian Dumard, the meteorologist for The Ocean Race. “I think we can expect the fleet will stay a little bit north of the ice exclusion zone to avoid the worst sea state as the wind gets even stronger.”

Dumard said that during the approach to Cape Horn, the wind will be strong, 25 knots or so, before easing dramatically, and the sea state should moderate in turn.

On the race course, the competition is still very close, with Biotherm pushing about 40 miles to the south of Team Holcim-PRB and Team Malizia who are so close together they appear to be on top of each other on the race tracker. 11th Hour Racing Team has fallen off the pace ever so slightly today, now 30+ nm behind to the west.

Biotherm suffered a tear in their fractional headsail as skipper Paul Meilhat explained: “We had two reefs and the FRO (fractional code zero). There was a steep wave and we had a serious nose-dive. When the boat came out of it, the sail was practically torn in two at the foot. We managed to roll it and put it back in the bag, and we then hoisted a smaller sail.

“This was our first warning shot of this big low pressure system… I think it will be reparable in Itajaí but not now, we won’t be able to fix it at sea.”

This is unlikely to be the last of the drama in the next days – the approach to Cape Horn nearly always adds a final challenge. The ETA is March 26-27 UTC.

Leg Three Rankings at 19:00 UTC
1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 3374.6 nm
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 12.4 nm
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 16.2 nm
4. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 35.3 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