Challenges continue for The Ocean Race

(March 29, 2023; Day 32) – After passing Cape Horn and escaping the south, the big weather challenges haven’t quite ended for The Ocean Race sailors yet.

The leading pair – Team Malizia and Team Holcim-PRB – found themselves in what Malizia’s Will Harris called some of the most challenging weather of the leg when they turned north. Gale force winds and sharp, confused seas.

Separated by less than 20 miles, the front-running duo are in an intense race that looks to be close all the way to the finish, with the ETA shading towards April 2 in Itajaí, Brazil.

Race weather expert Christian Dumard today described a situation for the trailing pair where strong winds were racing down the coastal mountains with microburst rain squalls that could see the wind increasing suddenly from 20 knots to 40+ knots.

“It can be very difficult for the sailors as often you think once you pass Cape Horn things will get easier, but that hasn’t been the case yet,” Dumard said.

On Biotherm, the weather near Cape Horn included snow on the mountains and snow squalls on deck (click here).

“This was a spectacular rounding of Cape Horn because there was so much snow… It was absolutely beautiful. Huge snow squalls coming through,” said Sam Davies on Biotherm.

“It’s a great goal post to get through but as we gybed close to Cape Horn we lost all of our wind instruments and the computer. At the same time there was that massive snow squall so we didn’t have a lot of time to celebrate…”

The team is going old school with the electronics damage, tying ‘woolies’ on the shrouds to show the wind angle.

“A couple of weeks ago it wasn’t certain we’d make it this far,” said 11th Hour Racing Team skipper Charlie Enright. “This is a big milestone in the journey of circumnavigating the planet. I’m very proud of our squad and the work that’s been put in… It feels good… And now it’s back to work and 2000 miles to go!”

Enright’s team has needed to throttle back to avoid further damage. “It has been difficult compromising on the performance, with the technical issues we’ve ad, with the mainsail and the rudders, but we’ve found some good solutions to the problems, even if it is frustrating not to be able to push the boat as hard as we would like,” noted crew Justine Mettraux.

Leg Three Rankings at 20:00 UTC
1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 1236.0 nm
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 9.3 nm
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 259.0 nm
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 323.9 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