Atlantic Ocean Race: “Malizia 4” is leading strongly on a westerly course

After an exciting start and a number of battles over positioning In the Ocean Race Atlantic, after their second night at sea, the teams are racing eastwards as fast as possible at around 40 degrees north latitude. Having been briefly overtaken by Paul Meilhat’s “United by the Ocean” the previous evening, Boris Herrmann’s “Malizia 4” had swiftly regained the lead.

Team Malizia had previously positioned itself a little further north and lost a few nautical miles whilst making the course correction. They have more than made up for that since “returning to the pack”. Boris Herrmann had already praised the qualities of his new boat the day before, saying: “The boat has real power upwind.” On Friday morning, too, the Malizia crew continued their power play.

“Malizia 4” sets the pace in the Transat

By the early hours of 4 September, Boris Herrmann, Cole Brauer, Justine Mettraux and Julien Villion had extended their lead to more than a dozen nautical miles. Most recently, on Friday morning, the Malizia quartet impressed with an average speed of 19.1 knots over a four-hour period.

The first runner-up, “United by the Ocean”, which on the motorway heading east Whilst “Malizia 4” was positioned around 25 nautical miles to the south, the average boat speed on Friday morning during the same period was just 15.3 knots. Meanwhile, the crews were enduring high summer temperatures during these first few days on board. “It’s 29 degrees below deck. It’s a bit like being in a sauna,” reported “11th Hour Racing” skipper Frankie Clapcich.

Click here for the live tracker for the first Ocean Race Atlantic.

After the second night at sea, her 2022 IMOCA – the former “Malizia 3” – was around 20 nautical miles behind “Malizia 4”. The winner of the second Supersprint, held the previous day, remained close on the tail of Paul Meilhat’s “United by the Ocean” on Friday morning. In the middle of the Atlantic, between “Malizia 4” ahead and “United by the Ocean” and “11th Hour Racing” behind, Oliver Heer’s “Embrace the Challenge” was still holding on to fourth place early on Friday morning, having recently shifted its course slightly closer to the “Malizia” team.

The Herrmann Quartet leads the sprint classification in the Ocean Race Atlantic

At the same time, the new “DMG Mori Global One”, some 35 nautical miles away from “Malizia 4”, was the southernmost boat in the fleet. Skipper Kojiro Shiraishi, Sam Davies, Nico Lunven and Arisa Moriya had managed to make up a few miles on the ‘highway’ heading east. The gap to Conrad Colman’s older “MSIG Europe” – built in 2007 – has now grown to around 100 nautical miles.

A look at the Supersprints special classification on Friday morning also saw Team Malizia in the lead. “Malizia 4” topped the standings after two of the twenty-minute sprints, with one first place and one second place, totalling eleven points. Behind them were Frankie Clapcich’s Thursday winner “11th Hour Racing” (9 points), Oliver Heer’s “Embrace the Challenge” (7 points), “United by the Ocean” and “DMG Mori Global One” (6 points each). “MSIG Europe” has so far scored three points. Click here for the results.

A look back! The organisers present the highlights from the start of the new Ocean Race Atlantic: