Epic conditions for The Ocean Race

(March 25, 2023; Day 28) – It’s the final weekend in southern latitudes for The Ocean Race, and as the four IMOCA teams pierce the latitudes of the Furious 50s, the winds and waves are on a one way track from west to east around Antarctica.

The continuous train of low pressure systems generating wind and waves come to a head at Cape Horn where the land juts to the south and there is a shelf where the sea bed rises from 5000 metres to less than half that in Drake Passage to the south and to just a few hundred metres if you pass further north and closer to land.

To watch the footage from the boats, click here.

This is where The Ocean Race IMOCA fleet is headed, the latest ETA is Monday afternoon/evening UTC (March 27).

The sailors are getting a final taste of the South this weekend, with winds a steady gale force 35 knots and gusting to 45 knots.

On the race course, Team Malizia has edged out ahead of Team Holcim-PRB and Biotherm, with 11th Hour Racing Team sliding back over the past 36 hours. The spread from first to fourth is now over 100 miles, but as we’ve seen before in this leg, another compression is forecast with the leading boats expected to push into lighter wind around Cape Horn.

“We are now on the last long downwind sailing part, heading to Cape Horn, with the last low pressure system that will take us to the Horn Passage,” said Team Holcim PRB skipper Kevin Escoffier.

“We are still in contact with Malizia who are a little faster than us in these conditions. We knew that we had a versatile boat, and that they have a sailboat that is suited to this kind of conditions. Our strategy is to take it easy without trying to do something you can’t do with the boat.”

“We’re flying down the waves in 30 to 40 knots of wind,” screamed Will Harris on the deck of Malizia where he was tying in some lines to tidy up the reef in the mainsail. “Full speed. This is epic! This is the true south. Albatross, 5 metres waves… whoop!”

“Unfortunately, we’re bleeding miles to the others, being underpowered because we’re running with two reefs in the mainsail when it would be better to be on one,” said Charlie Enright on 11th Hour Racing Team, lamenting the damage to their mainsail that prevents them from sailing with a single reef.

“But we’re certainly in a better spot than after we passed through the scoring gate [to the south of Australia]. What the crew, and Jack (Bouttell) in particular, have been able to do and repair has been pretty amazing. We’re determined to eke out every ounce of performance from the boat, and it’s been cool to be racing within sight of the other boats.

“There’s 20 of us down here in this remote part of the world, and yes we’re rivals, but we’re also friends, we’re family. There’s a camaraderie between all of us, good banter on the radio, and it feels good for all of us to be down here together in this crazy part of the world.”

The forecast is for conditions to remain very strong, with winds beginning to moderate tomorrow before easing significantly the following day, leaving the possibility of a relatively easy passage of Cape Horn later that day.

Leg Three Rankings at 13:00 UTC
1. Team Malizia, distance to finish, 2668.7 nm
2. Team Holcim-PRB, distance to lead, 24.8 nm
3. Biotherm, distance to lead, 90.2 nm
4. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to lead, 109.7 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