It was a dress rehearsal without a podium finish: Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia finished fourth in the inaugural Ocean Race Atlantic. After 8 days, 6 minutes and 40 seconds, the new Koch-built ‘Malizia 4’ was just 300 seconds short of third place in a thrilling final showdown with the Japanese ‘DMG Mori Global One’.
Ocean Race Atlantic: The two older IMOCAs beat the two younger ones
“Right up until the very end, we still thought we might just be able to catch up,” said Boris Herrmann after the nail-biting battle on the water. Both the Antoine Koch-designed “Malizia 4” and Kojiro Shiraishi’s Verdier-designed “DMG Mori Global One” are just two months old. They were considered favourites before the race began on 2 September, even though new designs often take years of optimisation to reach full maturity.
Paul Meilhat’s ‘United by the Ocean’ won the 3,000-nautical-mile Transat (7 days, 23 hours, 39 minutes, 11 seconds), ahead of Francesca Clapcich’s “11th Hour Racing”, which crossed the finish line 8 minutes and 56 seconds after the winners. The Italian-American made no secret of her slight disappointment. On the final day, her team had first overtaken the DMG Mori Sailing Team – comprising Kojiro Shiraishi, Samantha Davies, Nico Lunven and Arisa Moriya – to take the lead, before engaging in a neck-and-neck duel with “United by the Ocean”.
“In the end, you always want more. We were so close to winning the race.” Francesca Clapcich
Until around 2.30 pm, “11th Hour Racing” was in the lead. But then Paul Meilhat – who lives in Lorient with his family – and his crew proved to have the better instinct in the changeable final winds. His team sailed north of the Glénan Islands, whilst “11th Hour Racing” sailed to the south. For hours, the crews on “United by the Ocean” and “11th Hour Racing” were locked in a thrilling duel, the outcome of which remained almost impossible to predict right up until shortly before the finish.
The current in the Atlantic is as strong as that around Europe
In the final stages, sailing closer to shore than their rivals, Meilhat and his team eventually found better wind, took the lead for good and held on to it until they crossed the finish line at 3.39 pm. The two most successful boats in this transatlantic race from New York to Lorient were launched in 2022 and enjoyed a new lease of life.
"I’m really delighted for Paul and his team; I’m happy for them to have this victory. Paul is one of the best sailors; he’s a hero to me too." Boris Herrmann
Paul Meilhat had also won the Ocean Race Europe in 2025 with the same boat, then known as the ‘Biotherm’, starting from Kiel. Since then, the ‘Queen of the Mediterranean’ has been regarded as a fast-starting glider in moderate conditions. The winners – Paul Meilhat, Mariana Lobato, Sara Stone and Benjamin Ferré – have just impressively demonstrated that she can also handle the Atlantic and rough seas as a complete package, even if it wasn’t always easy. Meilhat explained in Lorient: “The boat isn’t exactly the latest design. It’s fast, but we also had a few tough moments because it isn’t really fast in rougher seas.”
"But we know that this boat is really, really fast in calm waters and light winds." Paul Meilhat
All four of the leading boats in the transatlantic race crossed the finish line within less than half an hour after covering 3,000 nautical miles. This also shows just how breathlessly close the contest was and how evenly matched the competitors were. “I’m proud of my team. I’m proud of how we stayed motivated and fought hard. The handicap could easily have demotivated us,” said Boris Herrmann after the nail-biting finale off the coast of Brittany.
“Malizia 4” slowed down by a collision, but lightning-fast upwind
On the fourth day of racing, Team Malizia, whilst in the lead, collided with a marine mammal or a large fish. This resulted in damage to the foil system of the boat, which was practically brand-new – a setback for the crew. How would things have gone without the damage? Boris Herrmann said: “It’s always tricky to speculate about things like that, but it certainly held us back a lot in this race. It’s a bit disappointing, really.”
On the plus side, it’s clear that the IMOCA is already very fast in many conditions. Boris Herrmann said: “Our new boat is super-fast upwind. And it’s fast all the way upwind, even when reaching. We’re not quite as fast yet on a broad reach or in rough seas. We haven’t had much experience of that yet. We still need to learn that.”
All in all, the 45-year-old from Hamburg is impressed by the new boat. After his first regatta in the “Rakete” – designed by the Frenchman Antoine Koch – the six-time round-the-world sailor gave a positive assessment, saying: “The boat is extraordinary! We were incredibly fast upwind from the start right up until the collision. That then set us back about two hours’ work. We were never quite able to make up that lost time afterwards.”
The Ocean Race Atlantic as a dress rehearsal for the round-the-world race
The Ocean Race Atlantic is regarded as a dress rehearsal for the main round-the-world race, in which Team Malizia is also taking part. Afterwards, Boris Herrmann intends to set his sights on his third Vendée Globe in 2028 with “Malizia 4”. The Ocean Race, which celebrated its 53rd anniversary on 8 September during the transatlantic race, will get underway on 17 January in Alicante, Spain.
In the Ocean Race Atlantic, which is still underway, Oliver Heer’s “Embrace the Challenge” was expected to arrive during the night leading into Friday. The Swiss IMOCA from 2018 still had a good 60 nautical miles to cover to reach the finish line at around 8 pm. Conrad Colman’s outsider, “MSIG Europe”, was still some 300 nautical miles from crossing the finish line at that point.