The Ocean Race: Bow to bow - Boris Herrmann reports on the thriller duel
Tatjana Pokorny
· 31.03.2023
Fans can hardly take their eyes off the tracker. That's where the changes in the top duel between Kevin Escoffier's team Holcim - PRB and Boris Herrmann's team Malizia marginal. After the Swiss team had made up a gap of around 30 nautical miles by Thursday, the two Imocas are now sailing bow to bow towards the finish line for the time being.
Like a mixture of boxing match and chess duel
On the morning of 31 March, the rivals were separated by less than two nautical miles. After 33 days at sea, the two sailing quartets are sailing partially within sight of each other, as if it were a duel in the Bermuda Gold Cup and not the final sprint after a three-quarter round-the-world race. They fight with each other in a mixture of boxing match and chess duel, eyeing each other up and looking for their chances.
In the battle for the stage win, the chasing teams 11th Hour Racing and Biotherm were trailing by around 330 and 415 nautical miles respectively on Friday morning. The teams of Charlie Enright and Paul Meilhat will hardly be able to intervene in the battle for the maximum points on the mammoth stage, but will be fighting with each other for third place.
Team Guyot arrives in Itajaí
One team has already reached the Ocean Race stage harbour of Itajaí: Team Guyot has completed its two-week transfer after the stage task and hull repair in Cape Town. "Guyot" skipper Benjamin Dutreux greeted his transfer crew with Seb Simon and Phillip Kasüske from Berlin at the dock. Dutreux said in Brazil: "It's exciting to welcome the boat here in Itajaí. It's a stopover that promises a warm welcome from the public."
I hope we can get back into the game." (Benjamin Dutreux)
Like his Berlin co-skipper Robert Stanjek, the Frenchman is looking forward to his team's comeback and said: "We had to withdraw from the last leg, but not from the race. We now have a long list of tasks to complete for the last half of the race. I know that we will return to the competition in good shape. We have enough time to take care of details that we never have time for. I hope that this will get us back in the game. We are very proud of the team and our sponsors for their support."
At the same time, the duel between the top teams at sea raged towards the final. The organisers expect the leading boats to arrive on 2 April. How the spectacular Ocean Race match race between Team Holcim - PRB at sea and how it could turn out, Boris Herrmann reported exclusively for the readers of YACHT online with some optimism on Friday night:
"I started my first watch on Thursday morning with an eight-mile lead over Holcim on the AIS. If you can see the competitor on the AIS, he's already quite close. So within AIS range. Then we caught up, then they did again. At the end of my first watch, we still had a lead of six and a half miles. Then it was Will's turn. They got even closer. After that I fought during one watch so that we were at least a few boat lengths ahead. We tried everything possible. Water ballast and all that.
There's a high ahead of us. Nobody can escape anyway."
Since then, we've had them relatively stable next to us. It feels quite good that we can keep her in check in these medium and light winds. Everyone on board is relaxed and happy about this situation. We wouldn't be too upset if they moved a little forwards in these light winds, because there's an area of high pressure in front of us. Nobody can get away from it anyway.
What will happen during the day today: The area of high pressure disappears and an area of low pressure makes landfall. We'll get quite a lot of wind. We hope that we can gain a bit of a head start again. So that on Sunday, when the wind picks up again towards the finish, we'll have a few miles advantage. So that we finish first ...
So at the moment it looks like we'll get really strong winds for 24 hours from tonight until Saturday evening. 30 to 40 knots, maybe even a bit more. We should be doing quite well again. We're trying to stay focussed. The mood on board is good. It's really fun at the moment. It's like a match race in the bay of Port-La-Forêt, like a typical half-week training session, which is what we usually do.
Kevin and I have a certain sympathy for each other."
Kevin also seems to be in a good mood and relaxed. We're chatting on WhatsApp and have been on the radio a bit. Today we also filmed and chatted a bit. We also have a certain liking for each other. We're already looking forward to the countryside. We think about what is our favourite thing to eat? What are we particularly looking forward to? We've also made a new podcast. It's already online. Rosie is feeling better. So all's well so far. Best wishes!"
Spectacular drone video from on board
A speeding "Malizia - Seaexplorer" and smiling faces on board: Team Malizia published these pictures worth seeing on 30 March:
