We have compiled the most important background information for you on the two classes, the boats, crews and the regulations of the oldest and most demanding round-the-world regatta on site. Here they are!
1. How crucial are the in-port races for success in The Ocean Race?
In principle, they are irrelevant because the placings and points achieved here do not count towards the results in the offshore stages. You could therefore dismiss them as a mere exhibition race, important for the sponsors and their guests, but negligible for the overall victory. Of course, this is not entirely true.
Because if two or more teams are tied on points after the seven offshore stages (Cape Verde, Cape Town, Itajaí, Newport, Aarhus, The Hague, Genoa), the in-port position serves as a "tie-breaker" - and can therefore still be decisive.
It would therefore be remiss to take an emphatically defensive stance here. The crews fear the lack of visibility on the short, one-hour courses just off the coast, especially as the Imocas are operated and usually piloted from below deck. A crash would be fatal because it could jeopardise the start of the next, far more important leg. Nevertheless, no-one will ride behind the field for safety reasons, as this would not go down particularly well with the fans and sponsors.
2. How well prepared are the teams for their first clash?
To be honest: not very well for the most part! With the exception of 11th Hour Racing, the team of US skipper Charlie Enright, everyone else was more concerned with getting their boats ready for the first Atlantic leg than with the small-scale tactics, the "who does what?" in the manoeuvre or the weather.
So it would be a surprise if we saw razor-sharp starts and lightning-fast jibes on Sunday afternoon. Although they are not completely out of the question, as the crews all have a great deal of experience, whether in Olympic classes and/or ocean racing.
With all reservations, here is a categorisation according to the degree of maturity and preparation, sorted from top to bottom:
"11th Hour Racing"
Ready to race since the turn of the year, she has sailed the most miles after "Guyot Environnement - Team Europe" and has had enough time to optimise minor males, but above all the sails and the autopilot system. She was the first Imoca at the regatta jetty. Hard to beat. How fast the Verdier design with the huge foils is - still unclear.
"Holcim - PRB"
One of the most tried and tested of the new Imocas and also in early form in Alicante. As Kevin Escoffier proved at the Route du Rhum (4th place), the boat is fast and reliable so far. The Verdier design is extremely flat and light, the team is well financed and the skipper is the most technically experienced in the field, with a Figaro-skilled young crew.
"Guyot Environnement -Team Europe"
The former and very successful 2016 "Hugo Boss" is considered a podium candidate even by Boris Herrmann. Served as a training and development platform for 11th Hour for a good year and was consistently kept in top form. Can be pushed from day 1 in The Ocean Race, i.e. tomorrow. Especially as the crew around Benjamin Dutreux and Robert Stanjek have sailed together for the longest time, first on the German "Einstein", with which they won the Ocean Race Europe, and since the summer on "Guyot". And there are top Olympians on board! Shortcoming: Dutreux only has a limited budget and does not want or need to jeopardise his start in the Ocean Race for the Vendée Globe 2024, which is the main priority.
"Malizia - Seaexplorer"
Boris Herrmann's new build is difficult to assess after the breakage of his original foils and the last-minute conversion to Sam Manuard wings. The speed potential is astonishing; on Saturday afternoon, during the second test run, the boat, which is based in Hamburg, travelled across the Mediterranean at around 28 knots. However, the reason for the delamination of the original foils has not yet been clarified beyond doubt, which is why the crew is starting the race rather conservatively and will only gradually increase its speed.
Two Achilles' heels remain apart from the lack of knowledge about the load limits of the new foils: in light winds, the shaft of the sickle-shaped wings, which cannot be fully retracted, causes more resistance. And in winds between 12 and 15 knots, "Malizia" is likely to come out of the water a little later. This could be a disadvantage in the Mediterranean and in the Ross Latitudes.
However, there looks to be more wind in tomorrow's in-port race, and Nico Lunven is one of the most skilful tacticians on board. The team is also working overtime: While all the other boats either stayed in the harbour or were back at the dock by 6 pm, "Malizia - Seaexplorer" was at sea until 9 pm. This suggests that Boris Herrmann and his crew want to leave no stone unturned to present themselves in the best possible light. Let us be surprised!
"Biotherm"
Paul Meilhat's boat is only in last place because it is the youngest of the new builds at the start and because it had not been under sail once since its arrival in Alicante until late Saturday afternoon. The hull had suffered structural damage during the Route du Rhum and the return passage; according to YACHT information from the team, it had to be additionally braced with three subsequently laminated ring frames.
The technicians and team members were obviously working through the longest to-do lists. Yesterday evening, several transducers were still missing; the cables were hanging loosely from the stern. The rudder shafts were reground. Is "Biotherm" ready for the first, albeit short-distance race? We won't know until tomorrow.
Meilhat, who has signed Damien Seguin as co-skipper, an Olympic medallist and Vendée participant, has a strong crew, always looked cheerful and tidy in all the hustle and bustle, and doesn't seem to be short of budget: Like Boris Herrmann, Kevin Escoffier and Charlie Enright, he will be competing with new sails worth well over 100,000 euros (per boat!).
3. Why is the crew list in the first in-port race revealing?
According to the rules of The Ocean Race, at least one of the four crew members on each Imoca must be a woman. All teams have signed up at least two female professionals in order to have an immediate replacement in the event of an injury. In the in-port races, however, only the woman who has either sailed the previous leg or will be on board for the following offshore leg is allowed to sail.
As there is no "before" before the start of the first leg on 15 January, the line-up for tomorrow's short-haul opener will also determine the crew selection for Leg 1 to Cape Verde.
Rosalin Kuiper, who is also seeded for the longest stage from Cape Town to Itajaí, will probably be used by Team Malizia, should nothing intervene.
Abby Ehler will be part of the "Holcim - PRB" crew tomorrow and next Sunday. She will be replaced in Mindelo by Sanni Beucke, who will also contest stage 3.
Team Guyot has a lot, no: almost everything, in favour of the experienced Annie Lush, who has been part of the regular crew right from the start. However, Tamara Echegoyen, herself an Olympic gold medallist, is also part of the squad. Tough choice, super strong women!
4. What strategy will the teams pursue in The Ocean Race?
In order to avoid trying to guess the facts, we'd better stick strictly to the facts on this point - which of course the Ocean Race participants can also pray backwards and forwards. According to this, not even half of the points will have been awarded by Itajaí/Brazil, the finish of the third leg (the third leg counts double, so to speak, due to a scoring gate). Roughly speaking, however, two thirds of the route are behind the crews, including the particularly arduous Southern Ocean leg, the longest in the 50-year history of The Ocean Race at 12,750 nautical miles.
If you sail south regardless of losses, your chances of winning will be buried in the worst case, or at least partially buried. So it's all about striking a smart balance. And quite a few teams clearly favour a strategy reminiscent of Boris Herrmann's Vendée Globe 2020/21: take your foot off the gas in the Southern Ocean, safely around Cape Horn, then attack.
Some observers even interpret the TOR rules to mean that, despite all the enthusiasm for the prospect of seeing Imocas sailing at the limit with a crew for the first time, the organisers have deliberately built in a kind of safety device in the Southern Ocean because the following stages carry more weight for the overall result. This speaks in favour of rather cautious tactics until Brazil.
The following strategy is also possible: stay at least within striking distance of the leaders on all long stages without taking too many risks, and then give it your all just before the next harbour. If something breaks, you lose less time until the refit and repair stop. Which brings us to the next topic ...
5. What kind of logistics are required for The Ocean Race?
Although there are no other stops in the southern hemisphere apart from Cape Town and Itajaí due to the non-stop Southern Ocean stage, the effort that the teams have to put in to stay in the race and in shape is enormous. This also takes its toll on the organisers' self-imposed sustainability standards.
All five Imoca syndicates take it in turns to ship two complete team bases, consisting of workshop containers, spare and wear parts, around the world. While dismantling takes place in Alicante in a week, the same equipment is already on its way to Cape Town. Meanwhile, the Alicante equipment, usually three to four 20 or even 40-foot containers, is shipped to Itajaí, while the Cape Town set continues its journey to Newport after the restart. A gigantic endeavour that not only ties up money, but also personnel and requires sophisticated logistics. Those who, like Team Malizia, can rely on shipping companies as their main sponsors, who can also provide CO2-optimised ships and routes via the Seaexplorer platform, are in a good position.
In Cape Town and especially in Itajaí, the teams have longer stops for necessary repairs and refits. In Cape Town, it takes more than two weeks if the boats arrive without major damage and therefore arrive quickly, in Itajaí it takes a good three weeks. If you want to play it safe and be prepared for all eventualities, you will need 10 to 15 boat builders, riggers and electronics specialists on site, as well as another 10 to 15 support crew. Even a project such as "Guyot Environnement - Team Europe", which is rather tightly financed, has now grown to 40 employees and will be jetting around the world in roughly the same numbers.
The very first stop in Mindelo on the Cape Verde Islands is particularly exciting. It is not just a few days short, but also prohibits support from the shore crews. So if there is damage to be repaired, the sailors have to roll up their sleeves. After all, they can fall back on well-stocked tools and parts. These are flown to the stage harbour by the organiser in special air cargo boxes. With only five Imocas taking part in the race, the lowest number in the 50-year history of the race, it would be hard to cope with losing a team prematurely simply because of a lack of support.
6. What can we expect from the VO65 teams?
Today's training session showed just how much of a speed advantage the Imocas now have. The latest generation of foilers can conjure up speeds of up to 30 knots from 18 to 22 knots of wind. The VO65s, on the other hand, only just managed 18 knots of speed, usually only around 15 to 16 knots. On the other hand, they will sail faster upwind. So much for the class differences, which are irrelevant because both boat types compete in their own starts, two hours apart. So it is pointless to draw comparisons.
But even within the VO65, there will foreseeably no longer be the intensity that we know from the past two editions of the Ocean Race, where the boats often crossed the finish line a few minutes apart after thousands of miles. That era is over.
This is because the organiser no longer provides and refits the yachts as before. The teams themselves are responsible for the technology and equipment. And there are glaring gaps - in expertise, in budget, in every aspect. You can no longer seriously speak of a standardised class.
Team "Wind Whisper" is undoubtedly at the forefront of the development. The Poles have swapped their previous VO65 for the top-maintained former "Akzo Nobel" and brought in Liz Wardley, by far the most capable boatwoman. No other team is so professionally prepared, including a completely new set of sails.
Next to or just behind them are the Portuguese Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team, which will be competing on the former winning yacht "Dongfeng" under its new name "Racing for the Planet", and the young Dutch "Team Jajo", which has signed up eight-time Ocean Race participant Bouwe Bekking, who knows the VO65 like no other and can make it fast.
The former Austrian team "Sisi", which received last-minute support from Genoa, the destination harbour of the Ocean Race, is predictably sailing at the back of the six-boat field. The crew also came together at very short notice and has never sailed a regatta in this formation before. And the boat is in a rather precarious condition. Unprotected from the sun, an ancient large from "Team Vestas" is still moored on the boom. The keel could not be tilted to one side in the middle of the week, and today a problem with the engine prevented the last possible test sail before the in-port race.
The VO65 fleet is so spread out that high-calibre offshore racing is unlikely to be on the cards. Significantly, the boats are only allowed to sail in three shorter legs. This is presumably due to the minimum scope required by the organisers for refits. The teams would only have been allowed to sail around the world if these requirements were met. However, not even half of the field had enough money for this. Instead, most of the VO65s will be transferred to the Caribbean after stage 1, in berth charters, to sail the Caribbean 600 and other winter regattas for paying guests. A fleet well beyond its former glory days. What a pity!
7. How can I follow the first regattas?
It is not yet entirely clear whether the prelude will be freely available tomorrow or only for Europsport/Discovery + subscribers. According to information from YACHT, the stream will also be shown on YouTube, at least with a time delay. Anyone who can relocate or disguise their location via a VPN should definitely have access.
Click here for the TV and streaming information for The Ocean Race (please click!).
Jochen Rieker
Herausgeber YACHT
