Course shift in The Ocean Race

With two legs remaining for The Ocean Race 2023, the around the world course shifts from massive offshore legs to a navigational nightmare of inshore obstacles. Two-time race skipper and North Sails president Ken Read shares his view on this shift:

Asked to make a prediction on the outcome, with two legs to go and 11th Hour Racing Team just one point ahead of Team Holcim-PRB, he resisted the temptation. “Well, I would never be crazy enough to make a prediction,” he joked. “I think the unpredictability of the race is my prediction.”

So what will it take to prevail by the finish at Genoa? “I just think it will be the team who can make the mental and physical switch to a totally different style of sailing – it could be a different watch system, it could be a different group of people on board – perhaps specialists in certain areas – that makes the difference,” he said.

Read says the final two legs will leave little room for error. “Ocean racing and coastal racing are completely different – it’s almost like chalk and cheese,” he explained. “It is a completely different mindset and in many ways coastal racing is harder because every detail is magnified.

“You can’t make a mistake if you only have a week to catch it back up. You can’t have a bad sail change so every headland, every tidal stream is magnified and your lack of sleep works against you. There is very little watch systems at this stage, you’re sleeping in your foul weather gear the whole time – the list goes on.

“Everybody thinks it’s easy because there are a few hundred, or a couple of thousand miles left, but they are sadly mistaken because it is – as I always say – as hard as you want it to be. And when these guys are fighting to win The Ocean Race, they are going to make it hard on themselves and they are going to push for every single millimeter.”

Leg 6: From Aarhus, Denmark to a mark at Kiel, Germany and then back up and around the top of Denmark to the finish in The Hague, The Netherlands (800nm)
Leg 7: From The Hague, Netherlands, down the coast of western Europe, though the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean Sea for the finish in Genova, Italy (2200nm)

Race details – Route – Tracker – Scoreboard – Content from the boats – YouTube

Overall Leaderboard (after 5 of 7 legs)
1. 11th Hour Racing Team — 28 points
2. Team Holcim-PRB — 27 points
3. Team Malizia — 24 points
4. Biotherm — 17 points
5. GUYOT environnement – Team Europe — 2 points

IMOCA: Name, 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.

Held every three or four years since 1973, 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: IMOCA