The tracker has been showing it clearly since Saturday: this weekend, the pecking order at the start of the Ocean Race Atlantic is different from what it was during the opening phase of the new transatlantic race from New York to Lorient. The situation changed when the new ‘Malizia 4’ collided with a marine mammal or large fish early on Saturday morning. The violent impact set Team Malizia back. The crew managed to secure the damaged hydraulic cylinder.
Boris Herrmann reported on the unfortunate collision, saying: “We hit something with our port foil whilst travelling at high speed. We heard a loud noise and found damage to the foil system. So we stopped the boat and worked on a solution. We’re sailing again now, but with slight restrictions on how we can use our port foil.”
"We’ll have to see how well it goes. I’m not quite sure about that yet." Boris Herrmann
On Sunday morning, the tracker showed that Team Malizia – comprising Boris Herrmann, Cole Brauer, Justine Mettraux and Julien Villion – were around 100 nautical miles behind ‘11th Hour Racing’, who had been in the lead since Saturday morning. Frankie Clapcich and her crew have recently been consistently achieving top average speeds in strong winds and rough seas aboard the former ‘Malizia 3’ from 2022.
Former “Malizia 3” is competing in the Ocean Race Atlantic as “11th Hour Racing”
Boris Herrmann’s well-seasoned former ‘Malizia 3’ is now, as “11th Hour Racing”, demonstrating the strengths for which it is already well known – the very strengths that propelled Boris Herrmann to two outstanding second-place finishes in the Transat CIC and the New York Vendée – Les Sables-d’Olonne ahead of the last Vendée Globe in 2024. Frankie Clapcich, Will Harris, Alberto Bona and Elodie-Jane Mettraux are currently capitalising on these strengths of the boat, maintaining consistency and good positioning to their advantage.
On Sunday morning at around 10. , Paul Meilhat’s French 2022 IMOCA “United by the Ocean” and Kojiro Shiraishi’s Japanese Verdier-built “DMG Mori Global One” remained hot on their heels. Overall, the speeds of the leading boats were extremely close together shortly before the halfway point of the Ocean Race Atlantic leg.
The performance figures can change dramatically depending on the wind angles and the prevailing sea state. As the low-pressure system really took hold on Friday, ‘Malizia 4’ was still clocking an average of around 18 knots over four hours, whilst ‘United by the Ocean’ and ‘11th Hour’ were at around 17 knots; shortly afterwards, ‘DMG Mori Global One’ had even achieved an average speed of 27 knots in winds of around 30 knots whilst sailing on a reach.
“DMG Mori Global One” wins its first Supersprint in the Ocean Race Atlantic
This also explains why the tracker positions sometimes change rapidly, as was the case on Sunday morning, when ‘DMG Mori’ cut its deficit to ‘11th Hour Racing’ by ten nautical miles in less than an hour: At these speeds, a boat can gain or lose several dozen nautical miles within a few hours. Pure instantaneous speed is less indicative than the combination of course, wind conditions and distance to the finish. On that Sunday morning, however, the new order established the previous day initially remained unchanged.
“United by the Ocean” is proving to be a strikingly strong challenger, having recently closed the gap on the leader by around ten nautical miles and continuing to trail closely behind “11th Hour Racing”. The DMG Mori Sailing Team, too, has now put its slow start behind it. At high reach speeds, the crew were able to capitalise on the strengths of their boat, which, like ‘Malizia 4’, is only two months old.
Oliver Heer’s “Embrace the Challenge” had also been performing well so far. On Saturday morning, the Swiss skipper had just described the conditions – with winds of over 30 knots and choppy seas – as “very challenging, to say the least”, adding: “It’s not easy to sleep on the boat. It’s not easy to eat on the boat. We’re tired and pushed to the limit. But better times will come again.”
Ocean Race Atlantic: good times, bad times
The opposite happened. During the night leading up to Sunday, the mainsail of the ‘Embrace the Challenge’ sustained severe damage whilst reefing. An initial team statement read: “The current conditions make it impossible to attempt a repair for the time being. The team is continuing its course to Lorient at reduced speed until we can examine the damage more closely at first light.”
"The crew are safe and sound, but we are deeply disappointed and hope to be able to carry out repairs soon." Oliver Heer
Whilst the leading three boats continued to race through the low-pressure system at speeds ranging from around 20 to well over 25 knots, “Embrace the Challenge” slow down following damage to its sails and had fallen almost 300 nautical miles behind “11th Hour Racing” by 10.00 on Sunday.
The race so far has therefore painted an interesting picture: The a striking impression of the ‘Malizia 4’s’ high speed potential has not been able to shake off that setback. Yet it is “11th Hour Racing” that is currently excelling with the best combination of pace and reliability. ‘United by the Ocean’, with a strong crew led by Ocean Race Europe winner Paul Meilhat, is hot on their heels, whilst ‘DMG Mori Global One’ is coming into its own.
“Malizia 4” leads the Supersprint standings, “DMG Mori” secures its first victory
There are many good reasons why the lead in the ongoing Ocean Race Atlantic is likely to remain hotly contested, even though it will be difficult for Team Malizia, operating under restricted conditions, to fight their way back to the very front. The recent setbacks at sea have also had an impact on the fourth Supersprint. Although Team Malizia continues to lead this special classification with 19 points, it suffered its first setback on Saturday, finishing fifth after two wins and a second-place finish.
In the interim standings, the crew on ‘DMG Mori Global One’ have drawn level with ‘Malizia 4’ following their latest victory in the daily simultaneous 20-minute speed races involving all boats. The third-placed ‘supersprinter’ is ‘11th Hour Racing’ (16 points), ahead of ‘United by the Ocean’, which most recently secured second place. They are followed by “Embrace the Challenge” (10 points), which is now also on a handicap, and Conrad Colman’s outsider “MSIG Europe” (7 points).
And this is what Boris Herrmann had to say about the collision and its consequences:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter