The Ocean Race leaderboard is beginning to take shape after two teams crossed the finishing line in Itajaí on Sunday morning. The Leg 3 winner is Team Malizia. Led by skipper Boris Herrmann, the Malizia crew fought hard for the win, which was in play until the final 24 hours. It’s a remarkable achievement for a […]
The Ocean Race
About The Ocean Race
Since 1973, The Ocean Race has provided the ultimate test of a team and a human adventure like no other. For nearly 50 years, it has kept an almost mythical hold over some of the greatest sailors and been the proving ground for the legends of our sport.
The 14th edition of The Ocean Race will start from Alicante, Spain on 15 January 2023, and will finish in Genova, Italy early in the summer of 2023. The race will visit nine iconic cities around the globe over a six-month period (Alicante, Spain - Cabo Verde - Cape Town, South Africa - Itajaí, Brazil - Newport, RI, USA - Aarhus, Denmark - Kiel Fly-By, Germany - The Hague, the Netherlands - Genova, Italy) and will feature a leg with the longest racing distance in the 50-year history of the event - a 12,750 nautical mile, one-month marathon from Cape Town, South Africa to Itajaí, Brazil. The fleet of mixed crews will pass all three great southern Capes - Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, Cape Horn - non-stop, for the first time.
Along with five confirmed foiling IMOCA teams racing around the world, six one-design VO65 boats will race on three legs with an option to compete for a new trophy within The Ocean Race called The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup.
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Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia wins Leg 3 of The Ocean Race
At 05:20:28 UTC / 02:20:28 local time in Brazil, Team Malizia glided across the finish line off Ocean Live Park in Itajaí to win Leg 3 of The Ocean Race, collecting 5 points in the process. The win comes on the 35th day of racing and after 14,714 nautical miles of intense, close-quarters racing. Early in the leg, […]
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The Ocean Race: A last hard kick on the way to Itajaí
There will be a live feed of the leg 3 finish from Itajaí on the Eurosport.com blogs about The Ocean Race – details below.================================================= It was the last thing they needed. A quick, deepening low pressure system bringing winds in excess of 40 knots, a sickening sea state, and another massive challenge for sailors operating on the 34th […]
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The Ocean Race: Tension mounts as racing remains painfully close
Tension, exhaustion, and extreme emotional swings through elation and despair. That’s likely to be the mood on board Team Holcim-PRB and Team Malizia all the way to the finish now. Despite racing hard for over 33 days and over 14,000 miles sailed over ground, neither Boris Herrmann’s Malizia, nor Kevin Escoffier’s Holcim-PRB crew have managed to […]
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Team Malizia neck and neck with Team Holcim – PRB after more than a month of racing
As the calendar ticks over to the 33rd day of competition on Leg 3 of The Ocean Race, Team Malizia and Team Holcim-PRB are as close as ever. On the 1200 UTC tracker update, the pair were separated by less than 5 nautical miles on the leaderboard. And it’s a tense time, with very changeable conditions. “We’ve […]
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Northern progress for The Ocean Race fleet
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, […]
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The Ocean Race moves back into the Atlantic
Team Malizia continues to head the leaderboard in leg 3 of The Ocean Race after leading the fleet around Cape Horn. On Tuesday it was 11th Hour Racing Team (12:55 UTC) and Biotherm (15:25 UTC) who took their turn passing the iconic landmark and joining the exclusive list of offshore sailors to have rounded the Horn. Check […]
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The Ocean Race: Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia lead fleet around Cape HornThe Ocean Race:
Team Malizia, who were contemplating a return to Cape Town after mast damage in the first days of leg 3, and who approached Cape Horn today nursing an injured crew member, have overcome all these obstacles and more to lead The Ocean Race fleet past the iconic landmark. Boris Herrmann, skipper of Team Malizia, commented on this, his fifth passing of […]
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Team Malizia’s Rosalin Kuiper suffers a head injury near Cape Horn – she is conscious, stable and recovering
The following information is from Team Malizia At around 0900 UTC on 26th March Rosalin Kuiper suffered a head injury after she fell from her bunk when the boat turned and slammed unexpectedly in heavy sea conditions. Rosalin was off watch and sleeping when the boat wiped out due to a large wave off the […]
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The Ocean Race: Lining up for the Horn
The teams have the end of the hardest part of the longest leg in the history of The Ocean Race in sight. An epic drone ‘movie’ from Team Malizia On Friday afternoon UTC, the most iconic of landmarks to offshore sailors – Cape Horn – lies just over 1000 miles to the east. But those […]
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The Ocean Race: Big conditions ahead on the way to Cape Horn
For 50 years of The Ocean Race, sailors have considered the Southern Ocean leg, the racing that takes place between Cape Town and Cape Horn, deep in the southern latitudes, as the biggest milestone in the event. Rounding Cape Horn marks the end of the southern conditions, where deep low pressure systems follow one after the […]
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The Ocean Race: From Point Nemo towards Cape Horn
The Ocean Race fleet passed Point Nemo just after 17:30 UTC on Tuesday afternoon, leaving the most remote and isolated place on the ocean in their wake. It likely didn’t feel as isolated as it usually would. All four boats passed the waypoint within a span of 23 minutes and at the head of the fleet, Team Malizia just […]
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The Ocean Race: Close together, far from home
The four IMOCAs charging towards Cape Horn are approaching Point Nemo on Tuesday. Defined as the most isolated, remote place on earth, Point Nemo is a spot in south Pacific Ocean, 2,688 kilometres from the nearest land. In fact, the closest sign of civilisation is the International Space Station, orbiting just over 400 kilometres above the sailors. But it […]
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The Ocean Race: Back up to speed
The four IMOCAs pushing east through the southern latitudes of the Pacific Ocean are seeing better speeds today, following a weekend of light winds. Racing along the ice exclusion limit at 52-degrees south, the teams are in 15 to 25 knots of wind, and average speeds are back up near 20 knots. And it is still incredibly, impossibly close racing – […]
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The Ocean Race: All lined up with one way to go
On Saturday it seemed as if the race couldn’t get any closer. By Sunday morning UTC that was proved wrong. Today, all four teams are lined up on a 13 mile line extending north to south, but separated by less than 3 miles on the leaderboard. All this after three full weeks of racing. The reason for the close […]
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The Ocean Race: Coming together in the not-so-furious
As forecast, lighter than usual conditions just ahead of the fleet have provided an effective re-start of leg 3, just after the four IMOCAs reached the halfway point of the longest stage in the history of the race. These are unusual conditions for the ‘Furious 50s’, the waters in the latitudes south of 50-degrees where strong winds and […]
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The Ocean Race: Steady progress towards Cape Horn
Team Holcim PRB retains its lead on Thursday, as the fleet compresses to within 100 miles. As per the forecast yesterday, the leader is slowing slightly and the trailing boats are nibbling into the lead, but little has changed in the big picture over the past 24 hours. “We knew that everyone would close up on us from behind […]
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The Ocean Race: Speed bumps ahead
Near midnight UTC overnight on Tuesday, Team Holcim-PRB made yet another gybe to the south, looking to stay close to the ice exclusion zone. Its nearest competitor – Team Malizia – continued pushing to the east, and for the first time since the start and the Cape of Good Hope, over two weeks ago, there […]
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The Ocean Race: Repairs and racing along the ice limit
Following the distribution of points at the scoring gate on Sunday, teams are now consolidating their positions and working through job lists to keep the boats in racing condition. On Monday evening, 11th Hour Racing Team revealed the latest challenge for their crew to overcome – a badly torn mainsail, along a load-bearing seam of […]
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The Ocean Race: Back to the grind
It’s back to work Monday for the IMOCA sailors in The Ocean Race. Following record breaking conditions on Saturday and the leg 3 scoring gate on Sunday, the workaday grind sets in again with Cape Horn still nearly two weeks away. In case you missed it, on Saturday all four boats blasted past the existing 24 […]
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The Ocean Race: Speeding to the East
There has been more of the same in The Ocean Race on Friday – but in a good way. All four teams are clicking down the miles, racing to the east in fast reaching conditions. The wind is up, the water is still (relatively) flat, and the miles keep sliding away under the keel. The fleet continues […]
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The Ocean Race: Closing time
It’s been a fantastic 48 hours on the race track for the trio of boats chasing down the current Leg 3 leader, Team Holcim-PRB. Since 1500 UTC on Tuesday, second-placed Biotherm have gained nearly 250 nautical miles. The lead is still significant – at 170 miles – but certainly far less secure than earlier in the week. The […]
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The Ocean Race: A long reach east towards Tasmania
With all four teams sailing deep into the Roaring 40s, the full fleet is finally in what the sailors would consider to be more typical Southern Ocean conditions, with strong winds from a series of low pressure systems propelling them relentlessly east. The leader, Team Holcim-PRB, has made a dive to become the boat furthest […]
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The Ocean Race: Tense times in the south
It’s an interesting day in The Ocean Race with quick moving weather making for a day of transitions in the southern latitudes. The big winner over the past 24 hours is second placed Biotherm, who have gained over 30 miles on Team Holcim-PRB. See on board Biotherm with Sam Davies At the other end of the […]
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The Ocean Race: Making Miles
As Team Holcim-PRB continues to set the standard, racing at speed towards the first scoring gate at 143 degrees east longitude, three other boats are – finally – in fast pursuit. Biotherm, 11th Hour Racing Team and Team Malizia needed to dive as far south as the edge of the ice exclusion zone to find the wind, […]