Injury on Team Malizia

(March 26, 2023; Day 29) – The Ocean Race’s Team Malizia reported that at around 0900 UTC today, Rosalin Kuiper suffered a head injury after she fell from her bunk when the boat turned and slammed unexpectedly in heavy sea conditions. Rosalin was off watch and sleeping when the boat wiped out due to a large wave off the South American coast near to Cape Horn. When this happened, Rosalin was thrown from her bunk and hit her head just above her right eyebrow.

Rosalin never lost consciousness in the incident and the crew was quick to come to her aid, as it was clear she was bleeding badly from her eyebrow. As Nico Lunven secured the boat to make it safe, Boris Herrmann contacted the shore to tell them what happened and then contacted the race doctor Spike Briggs from MSOS to confirm the best course of treatment.

Will Harris and Antoine Auriol cleaned and bandaged the area and have then continued to monitor Rosalin for worsening concussion symptoms every hour. Rosalin has been doing her best to rest and the team has been monitoring her for the last hours. Dr. Briggs made another check in at 17:30 UTC and confirmed she has a concussion and needs to rest; the team will continue to monitor her regularly.

Rosalin Kuiper, in a message to Team Director Holly Cova a few hours after the incident said, “I will get over it, I look like Pirate Rosie now. The slamming (in the boat) is quite bad though and goes through my head but I think I will be OK. I am sleeping a lot and the boys are looking after me really well.”

Will Harris contacted the shore through the middle of the day to say, “it is hard to stop the boat from wiping out at the moment, we are doing what we can to keep it stable but the conditions are incredibly hard. We are keeping a close eye on Rosie and will do all we can to make sure she is OK. She has been really brave and is trying to rest.”

Due to the remote location of the boat and the fact that Rosie is in a stable condition, the best option at the moment is to continue on. The boat team, shore team and The Ocean Race race control will continue to monitor Rosalin and will keep taking advice from Doctor Spike Briggs in order to make sure Rosalin is given the best possible care onboard. Conditions are forecast to be moderate and the motion on the boat should get progressively better into tomorrow UTC.

Team Malizia and The Ocean Race will update when there is more information.

Leg Three Rankings at 14:00 UTC
1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 2279.1 nm
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 37.9 nm
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 141.3 nm
4. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 192.1 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