The Ocean Race: Three-way battle on the ice edge - Holcim - PRB leads, Malizia fights

Team Holcim - PRB continues to set the standard on leg three of the Ocean Race. The Escoffier crew is heading unchallenged at high speeds towards the first scoring gate at 143 degrees east longitude. In the meantime, however, the three pursuers are finally able to put the pedal to the metal again. Paul Meilhat's Team Biotherm, the US team 11th Hour Racing and Team Malizia had to reach the southern edge of the ice exclusion zone to find the wind. In the Indian Ocean, the trio is now making good distances eastwards at a latitude of less than 45 degrees south.

Nico Lunven: "These are nice and fast sailing conditions"

"We have good conditions and flat seas," reports Team Malizia's navigator Nico Lunven of the reopened hunt. "With 22 to 24 knots of wind from the north-west, the sailing conditions are nice and fast. Tomorrow morning we will be caught by a cold front coming from behind. This will give us a transitional phase for a few days," concluded Lunven with a view to the wind then shifting to the south. Nico Lunven's description shows the relief that prevails in Team Malizia after the repair marathon of the past few days.

"The bow is finally pointing east. The boat speed is finally over 20 knots," 11th Hour Racing on-board reporter Amory Ross also noted on Saturday, "our five-minute average is ... I'll check it briefly ... 26 knots. I'd say it's a very comfortable 26."

Three-way battle along the ice edge

The experienced circumnavigator described the current sailing in the Southern Ocean as unusually mild: "The seas are relatively flat for the Southern Ocean and the temperatures are relatively warm. But I say that in the certainty that our date with the approaching 'corner' of the ice edge - about 10 nautical miles south of us and 440 miles east of here - will bring a right turn and a leap into the extremes. From that we know it's not always necessarily pleasant."

On the evening of 4 March, at the start of the seventh day of the Ocean Race King's Stage, the three Imoca chasers were significantly further south than the lone front runners on "Holcim - PRB". They scraped along the ice line drawn by the race organisers below the 45th parallel south, while the Escoffier crew travelled over 400 miles north to the east. Team Holcim - PRB continues to use the weather system that has already carried the green and blue Imoca so far. After the first week of the leg, its lead of around 540 nautical miles accounts for more than four per cent of the total distance of the "monster leg".

Team Holcim too-PRB must head south - the chance for the pursuers

There is still a "but" for Team Holcim-PRB. Because even the team flying the Swiss flag will have to head south at some point. This could bring new opportunities for the chasing trio. Because then Kevin and his crew will have to sail through a field with lighter winds. It is expected that the fleet will move closer together again in the coming second week of the third Ocean Race leg.

Guyot Environnement - Team Europe can only dream of such prospects at the moment. Skipper Benjamin Dutreux, co-skipper Robert Stanjek, Annie Lush and navigator Seb Simon are expected to arrive in Cape Town on Saturday evening. At 5.30 p.m. German time, they still had around 50 nautical miles to go to reach the harbour with their broken-down boat. If the weather is favourable, the boat should be craned out of the water on Sunday. The shore crew has prepared everything for the immediate start of repair work on the damaged hull structure.

Full throttle again at last: Team Malizia races along the ice edge. Rosalin Kuiper tries to replenish the energy she invested in her mast repair the day before and reports a speed of 34 knots:

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