The Ocean Race: The fleet under pressure - "Guyot" makes strong progress

Between investment in the West and a direct course to Cape Town

The cat-and-mouse game in the Atlantic continues. The Ocean Race fleet of the five Imocas is approaching the equator. You can watch as the crews work to find the optimum route and the best bridge across the calmer belt, which is littered with doldrums. Sometimes they invest in the west, because the doldrums there appear narrower in the forecast and are possibly quicker to cross. Then it's back to near the direct course line to Cape Town.

The closer a boat is positioned to this direct line, the better it looks in the intermediate ranking, where investments in the west are naturally not initially rewarded. However, the final score is calculated after passing the notorious doldrums around the zero latitude. The Ocean Race Tracker helps to better understand the teams' strategic challenges and decisions.

Team Malizia is currently seeking its fortune in the West

For example, if you look at the tracker and place the wind over the course with the fourth button from the bottom on the left edge of the tracker screen and then fast-forward the time at the top edge of the screen, you can easily see how the slack zone at the equator develops, moves, gets bigger or narrower. Of course, these are only forecasts, but they are a good indication of what the strategists on board the boats have to deal with.

This was especially true for Team Malizia on Saturday morning. After three nights at sea, the crew led by new skipper Will Harris was the last boat to catch up with the leaders, more than 170 nautical miles behind. To do so, the crew with navigation ace Nico Lunven and Yann Eliès, who knows all the tricks of the trade, as well as Rosalin Kuiper from the Netherlands, set off to the west.

Holcim - PRB and Guyot with peak values

With around 4,300 nautical miles remaining to the stage harbour in Cape Town, the top four boats were only a good 30 nautical miles apart at the start of the weekend. Team Holcim - PRB achieved the highest speed in the last 24 hours with an average of 13.7 knots. However, the best VMC value (speed on the course to the destination) over 24 hours was recorded by Guyot Environnement - Team Europe with 11.6 knots. In terms of VMC approach speed to the finish, "Biotherm" and Kevin Escoffier's Team Holcim - PRB with Susann Beucke achieved 10.1. The US team 11th Hour Racing achieved an average of 9.4 VMC, Team Malizia in the west only 6.0.

Robert Stanjek: "We can finally compare ourselves live with the other boats"

"We've fought our way back into the miles and have regained contact with the fleet. That's great," said Guyot helmsman Robert Stanjek happily at the end of the second day of sailing. He continued: "We are now in a good position and can finally compare ourselves live with the other boats and not just by the numbers." Simon Fisher, navigator on board 11th Hour Racing, described the current task: "When the trade winds pick up, we want to head west, but we have to make sure we don't go too early."

Far away in Lorient, where Yoann Richomme's new Imoca "Paprec Arkéa" can already be admired, the two-time Figaro and two-time Route du Rhum winner is also involved in the Atlantic Ocean Race. While his own Finot-Conq-Antoine-Koch design is about to take to the water for the first time, Yoann Richomme was impressed by the Ocean Race teams and his future rivals in the Imoca regattas and the Vendée Globe 2024/2025. "I see 'Biotherm' as being pretty agile in the light winds," said the Frenchman about his compatriots.

Yoann Richomme: "Paul is doing a great job"

He continues: "Some of this could be down to their choice of sails and whether or not they carry a spinnaker. But you could see that other boats leaving Cape Verde were not able to sail as deep as Biotherm. So I think it's a spinnaker design or sailing style that's a bit better than the others."

Weather expert Yoann Richomme said in an interview with theImoca class also this about "Biotherm" skipper Paul Meilhat: "Paul does a great job. He also did a great job on the Route du Rhum, even though he has a brand new boat, very little preparation time and no big budget. He doesn't have a big team that he would need to optimise the boat quickly. But he is very good at pulling off a project with a tight budget and focussing on the essentials. And the boat is also a good basis - it's a further development of 'LinkedOut'. So Paul knows where the starting point is. And he sailed on the 'Apivia' for a season, so he already has a lot of experience."

"Guyot will come into play from point X"

Richomme believes that the performance of Kevin Escoffier's team on "Holcim - PRB" is similarly good. Which, in his opinion, could cause Charlie Enright and his 11th Hour Racing team a headache on "Mãlama". According to Richomme, he had read an interview with Charlie Enright in which Enright described how it had taken a while for his team to get used to the sailing style on Imocas. For this reason, Richomme says, the French Imoca experts probably made their early gains in the race.

Yoann Richomme expects "strength in strong winds" from Team Malizia. Commenting on Guyot Environnement - Team Europe with the only older boat in the field, the currently sidelined skipper Ben Dutreux and Robert Stanjek, Richomme said: "The boat is a bit heavy. We all know that. I'm not sure they have the skills to sail it like the top guys. I think the team is still on a steep learning curve when it comes to handling these boats. Not all the sailors on board have the Imoca experience. So it will take a while for them to get up to speed. But: they will come into play from point X."

Click here for the live tracker and the interim results.