The Ocean Race: Repeat win for Team Holcim – PRB

Cape Town, South Africa (February 12, 2023) – Skipper Kevin Escoffier and his Team Holcim – PRB have won Leg 2 of The Ocean Race from Cabo Verde to Cape Town after a tense battle through the final miles of the race.

At sunrise this morning, four teams were in the fight for the leg win, with Biotherm, 11th Hour Racing Team, and the Holcim – PRB crews racing in lockstep in light and changeable conditions.

Team Malizia was some 20 miles to the south, but then spent the next three hours just about sailing around the leading trio.

But the light and fickle winds didn’t hold for them and in the end it was a three boat race among the northern trio.

Just three hours before the finish, Escoffier and his team finally popped up at the head of the rankings, having been able to sail a slightly better angle at a similar speed towards Cape Town, creating the narrow separation necessary to eke out a winning position.

This is the second consecutive leg win for Escoffier and his team, who maintain a perfect record, and will extend their advantage on the race leaderboard.

For the US-flagged 11th Hour Racing, skipper Charlie Enright looked for the silver lining.

“We are a little disappointed with a third place after 17 days, but the bigger picture to take home is that we sailed the boat fast and well, and I think that bodes well for the future,” said Enright. “This race is a marathon and not a sprint, and we have a big doubler pointer coming up on the next leg.

“The leaderboard doesn’t reflect what we would like it to reflect, certainly in terms of how we have sailed, but we are only 20% into the race. If we sail the boat as we have done in the last leg from now until July, relative to the competition, we’ll be fine. This is an opportunity for resilience.”

The scenario offered by the five IMOCA racing in the The Ocean Race was quite simply exceptional from the start and the first tacks in the Cabo Verde archipelago. Each one of them took it in turns to play what they thought was their best strategic card or their best tactical placement during these 17 days of rare intensity.

It was a high-flying game that took place during 6,500nm on the Atlantic.

For Kevin Escoffier and the whole team, this victory in Cape Town is memorable and could well remain as one of the most epic moments of this round the world race. At the finish, only 16 minutes and 45 seconds separated the top two boats. The 11th Hour Racing Team completed the podium by crossing the line only 25 minutes and 31 seconds after Holcim-PRB.

“I am so happy for the team because we didn’t have the whole technical team to celebrate our victory in Mindelo,” said Escoffier. “Here, in Cape Town, we are all together – the sailors and the technical team. We will share this victory together.

“We had very small gaps between the boats. This leg was almost like a one-design leg as in the past. For the public, it is fantastic to follow. For us, it was a huge battle on the water.

“I can’t be more satisfied than with this second victory with Holcim-PRB, which is a new boat, with a team that we put together late for the race… No, we don’t feel unbeatable at all. You only have to look at what happened on the water. It was very hard to win here. It was impossible to make a prediction even an hour before the finish.”

Holcim-PRB finally managed to take the lead just a few miles before the finish line and to recover a stronger flow along the coast. Before that moment, there were four boats who could have won.

“Winning here in Cape Town was not easy,” noted crew Sam Goodchild. “The last few days were a bit unpredictable but we’re really happy to have won here, to have held on until the end. We remained solid despite the stress. We maintained a good level of exchange. It was extremely constructive for the future.

“I’m tired, it was really hard! We still don’t know Holcim-PRB very well, but we learned a lot, especially about speed. It was a very instructive stage.”

For German sailor Susann Beucke, who was sailing on an IMOCA boat for the first time, this leg will remain engraved for a long time. “It was crazy! I’ve never had such an intense experience physically and emotionally,” she said. “The crew remained extremely focused from start to finish and I’m really happy that we won in the end.”

“We finished with a bit of luck today, but the Leg was really long,” shared crew Tom Laperche. “We found the right balance between being focused on the strategy, making the boat go fast and taking time to eat well and rest. We were in good shape to handle the intense finish.”

In two weeks, The Ocean Race fleet will set off February 26 on a 12,750-mile leg from Cape Town to Itajai in Brazil.

Leg Two Results
1. Team Holcim-PRB, 17d 19h 00m 09s
2. Biotherm, 17d 19h 16min 54s
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, 17d 19h 25min 40s
4. Team Malizia, 17d 21h 06min 49s
5. GUYOT environnement – Team Europe, 17d 22h 46min 27s

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

IMOCA LEG 2 CREW LIST

11TH HOUR RACING TEAM (USA)
Charlie ENRIGHT (USA) Skipper
Simon FISHER (GBR)
Jack BOUTTELL (AUS/ GBR)
Justine METTRAUX (SUI)
Amory ROSS (USA) – OBR

BIOTHERM (FRA)
Paul MEILHAT (FRA) – Skipper
Anthony MARCHAND (FRA)
Amélie GRASSI (FRA)
Damien SEGUIN (FRA)
Annne BEUGÉ (FRA)

TEAM HOLCIM-PRB (SUI)
Kevin ESCOFFIER (FRA) – Skipper
Sam GOODCHILD (GBR)
Tom LAPERCHE (FRA)
Susann BEUCKE (GER)
Georgia SCHOFIELD (NZL) – OBR

GUYOT ENVIRONNEMENT-TEAM EUROPE (FRA/ GER)
Robert STANJEK (GER) – skipper
Sébastien SIMON (FRA)
Anne-Claire LE BERRE (FRA)
Phillip KASÜSKE (GER)
Charles DRAPEAU (FRA) – OBR

TEAM MALIZIA (GER)
Will HARRIS (GBR) – skipper
Yann ELIES (FRA)
Rosalin KUIPER (NED)
Nicolas LUNVEN (FRA)
Antoine AURIOL (FRA) – OBR

Leg One Results

IMOCA
1. Team Holcim-PRB, winner leg one, finished – 5d 11h 01m 59s
2. 11th Hour Racing Team, finished – 5d 13h 50m 45s
3. Team Malizia, finished – 5d 16h 35m 21s
4. Biotherm, finished – 6d 8h 47m
5. GUYOT environnement-Team Europe, finished – 6d 12h 20m 37s

VO65
1. WindWhisper Racing, finished – 5d 16h 35m 21s
2. Team JAJO, finished – 6d 4h 52m 52s
3. Austrian Ocean Racing-Team Genova, finished – 6d 19h 13m 54s
4. Ambersail 2, finished – 6d 21h 49m 04s
5. Viva Mexico, finished – 8d 13h 50m 25s
6. Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team – Retired from leg

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 start: January 15, 2023
Cabo Verde – ETA: January 22; Leg 2 start: January 25
Cape Town, South Africa – ETA: February 9; Leg 3 start: February 26
Itajaí, Brazil – ETA: April 1; Leg 4 start: April 23
Newport, RI, USA – ETA: May 10; Leg 5 start: May 21
Aarhus, Denmark – ETA: May 30; Leg 6 start: June 8
Kiel, Germany (Fly-By) – June 9
The Hague, The Netherlands – ETA: June 11; Leg 7 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, Team Holcim-PRB, 11th Hour Racing