11th Hour Redress Hearing on June 29

(June 21, 2023) – The Ocean Race 2023 has provisionally scheduled the World Sailing International Jury for the hearing to consider 11th Hour Racing Team’s Request for Redress at 10:00 on June 29. It will be an in-person hearing to be held in Genova, Italy.

The incident for 11th Hour Racing Team occurred 17 minutes after the start for Leg 7 when they were on a starboard tack upwind angle and were t-boned by the port tack GUYOT environnement – Team Europe, with the latter accepting full responsibility for the incident.

Here is the report from the Organizing Authority:

Since the outcome of 11th Hour Racing redress hearing may affect all the fleet, the International Jury is obligated to make as fair an arrangement as possible for all boats affected and therefore wants to give the full IMOCA fleet the right to be present at the hearing to present their views and ask questions.

Accordingly, the International Jury, acting under Racing Rules of Sailing 60.3(b), will simultaneously consider redress for Team Holcim-PRB, Team Malizia, Biotherm and GUYOT envrionnement – Team Europe, following the collision at the start of Leg 7. The incident resulted in both 11th Hour Racing Team and GUYOT envrionnement – Team Europe retiring from the leg with damage and 11th Hour Racing Team subsequently lodging a Request for Redress.

The GUYOT team is sailing to its home port in France while 11th Hour Racing Team made repairs to its IMOCA and is heading towards Genova with the intention to race the last In-Port race of this edition on July 1.

The World Sailing International Jury consists of six Jury members, including Jury Chairman Andres Perez. A Request for Redress is reasonably common in the sport of sailing and procedures for a hearing are well established as outlined below.

The relevant section in the Racing Rules of Sailing is Rule 62.1, which reads, in part:
A request for redress or a protest committee’s decision to consider redress shall be based on a claim or possibility that a boat’s score or place in a race or series has been or may be, through no fault of her own, made significantly worse by… injury or physical damage because of the action of a boat that was breaking a rule…and took an appropriate penalty or was penalized…

Along with Rule 64.3. Decisions on Redress:
When the protest committee decides that a boat is entitled to redress under rule 62, it shall make as fair an arrangement as possible for all boats affected, whether or not they asked for redress. This may be to adjust the scoring (see rule A9 for some examples) or finishing times of boats, to abandon the race, to let the results stand or to make some other arrangement…

The decision from the International Jury on the Request for Redress will be communicated as soon as possible after it is reached.

As the overall leader, 11th Hour Racing Team will seek a fair and equitable award for being forced to retire from Leg 7. Often that is, for the race missed, a score of average points for the races the team had completed. If this is the jury award, 11th Hour Racing Team will retain their overall lead and be named the winner of The Ocean Race 2023.

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

IMOCA Overall Leaderboard (after 6 of 7 legs)
1. 11th Hour Racing Team — 33 points
2. Team Holcim-PRB — 31 points
3. Team Malizia — 27 points
4. Biotherm — 19 points
5. GUYOT environnement – Team Europe — 2 points

VO65 Overall Leaderboard (after 2 of 3 legs):
1. WindWhisper Racing Team — 12 points
2. Team JAJO — 9 points
3. Austrian Ocean Racing powered by Team Genova — 7 points
4. Mirpuri/Trifork Racing Team — 5 points
5. Viva México — 4 points
6. Ambersail 2 — 3 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: TOR