A choppy sea, gale-force winds and the top-of-the-table duel between Team Malizia and Team Holcim PRBs characterise the final sprint of the Ocean Race's queen leg. The positions of the two leading boats remain almost unchanged on the 31st day of the leg from Cape Town to Itajaí. Looking at the tracker image, it looks as if someone has stuck a spacer about 30 nautical miles long between the yacht flying the German flag and its Swiss chasers. In reality, the continued lead of Boris Herrmann, Will Harris, Nico Lunven and Rosie Kuiper has been very hard earned.
Co-skipper Will Harris: "We have to play our own game"
The Malizia team, in particular, is under great pressure because it has to make do with one player less while Rosie Kuiper rests from her concussion. Boris Herrmann and Will Harris alternate with their guards. Navigator Nico Lunven is free of guard duty and takes care of the exciting duel with Kevin Escoffier's Team Holcim. PRB for routing, whenever required.
"The easiest way to finish the leg ahead of them would be to extend our lead," explains Team Malizia's co-skipper Will Harris, "we have to do what we think is right and play our own game." With the 11th Hour Racing and Biotherm teams 325 and 370 nautical miles behind on the morning of 29 March, it seems they will not be able to challenge for the win.After the happy Cape Horn summit storm, skipper Boris Herrmann reports on how tough the battle for victory in the South Atlantic is right now.
By Boris Herrmann:
"At the moment we have conditions that are much more difficult than in the Southern Ocean. We had 50 knots of wind the night before last. From today onwards, we can expect another low. These are small but strong lows that detach from the Argentinian coast and develop here. They are difficult to predict. We can expect 50 knots again. So it's also a bit about not doing anything wrong, not ruining anything.
The sea is chaotic. It's so bumpy here." (Boris Herrmann)
We were faster than Holcim in the phase of the strongest winds on the penultimate night. With two reefs. And I think they had reefed a bit more. It's still a mix out here: it's not as clean racing as it would be in normal conditions. The sea is completely chaotic. You just rattle around here. Last night the wind was 50 degrees different to the forecast. It's shifting weirdly with the clouds.
We are sailing in very unusual off-road terrain here. That's probably an advantage for us and our 4 Wheel Drive. Carry on as before, that's the motto. Nico is doing a super clean job with the weather. That means a good risk reduction for us: having someone who takes such good care. Will and I mainly try to take good care of the boat. Rosie can't recover so well, of course, because it's beating like hell. Even I had a headache the day before yesterday from the slamming. Now we have a brief moment with less wind, so I can report back.
You just have to keep at it, keep going and fight for every metre." (Boris Herrmann)
Anything can still happen. Of course, I hope that we finish first or second and that there are no big surprises. It's just a case of sticking with it, carrying on and fighting for every metre. There are no big strategic plans. I also believe that Kevin will stay with us. Or we will stay with him. So you can imagine a match race from here to the final, where it will be a lot about boat speed. And a bit of luck.
Sometimes you can't do anything. Like on Monday. We were 20 miles ahead to the east. As a result, we were positioned north-east in the low that was moving eastwards over us at the same time. That was much better for Kevin. He gained 20 miles once. We got that back again. But that's how the dynamics and geometry of the field and the shifts with the weather phenomena work: They can give one or the other a big advantage. Even as the leader, there's sometimes nothing you can do about it.
"We need strength all the way to Itajaí!" That's what Malizia's on-board reporter Antoine Auriol says in the latest video from on board entitled "A bumpy ride":
Once again to savour: A look back at the Cape Horn Passage and Team Malizia's success ...
