Trouble for USA team in The Ocean Race

Cape Town, South Africa (February 16, 2023) – The US-flagged 11th Hour Racing Team are pleading for help as their campaign to win The Ocean Race is now in the hands of the Race Committee which received a request today from the team to replace their damaged foils for Leg 3 from 11th Hour Racing Team at 0900 UTC.

The Rules of The Ocean Race (Notice of Race 6.4) specify teams are only allowed to use one set of foils in The Ocean Race. However, a team may apply for permission to replace a foil that “suffers serious damage that cannot be repaired before a Leg start”.

A dominant question at the start of The Ocean Race was whether all five IMOCA teams would finish the race, and that is being put to the test as the Race Committee reviews the technical reports supplied with the request. Here is the statement from 11th Hour Racing Team:

Three days after arriving in Cape Town, having completed Leg 2 of The Ocean Race 2022-23, 11th Hour Racing Team has discovered that both foils on its 60-foot race boat have suffered serious damage.

Following the team’s arrival in Cape Town on Sunday, February 12, all five boats in the race were lifted out of the water for checks and refit work before the fleet sets off for Brazil on February 26, 2023.

Once on the ground, the foils on Mālama were removed from the boat and have undergone surface Non-Destructive Testing. These non-invasive techniques determine the integrity of the structure of a boat and its appendages, and can be used to discover issues without causing any damage to the structure.

The survey found serious damage to both foils, and after consultation with the yacht’s design team, the advice given is that the foils will require extensive repair before going back into service. This work cannot be completed onsite in Cape Town before the boats leave on Sunday, February 26, for Leg 3 of The Ocean Race.

The consensus is it would be unsafe to venture further in the race with this set of foils, particularly with the next leg being a five-week-long marathon through the Southern Ocean.

The team has formally requested permission from the Race Committee to replace the foils onboard Mālama, so they can continue to compete in a safe and seaworthy manner.

The foils will be returned to the manufacturer in Europe where the full extent of the damage will be assessed before undergoing the necessary repairs, anticipated to take a number of weeks.

The state-of-the-art yacht has sensors on key components to measure loads and to provide real-time data back to the team’s shore crew, both to analyze performance, but more importantly to continuously check the safety of the vessel.

The first signs of damage were noticed in the final hours of Leg 1, when the team was on the approach to Cabo Verde. In around 22 knots of wind, the alarms attached to the foils were set off indicating a spike in the loads, and on inspection, it was clear there were multiple transverse cracks visible on the port foil.

On arrival in Cabo Verde, both foils were inspected, and the same transverse cracks were also visible on the starboard foil.

Skipper Charlie Enright said: “The stopover in Cabo Verde was determined to be a ‘Short Stop’ – so only the five people who arrived on the boat could work on it – our shore crew could only stand on the sidelines and advise. We surveyed the foils from the water and explored a few of the small cracks by sanding off the paint.

“No damage to the carbon was evident at that time, and there were a lot of discussions and late-night calls back to the design team to consider all our options. Between us, we agreed that we had to get the boat safely to Cape Town where we knew we could bring the experts in to inspect further. So we proceeded with racing, yet with some caution.

“To head into the southern oceans for nearly a month with two damaged foils would be foolhardy and not a risk that I am prepared to take, not for the safety of my crew, of the boat, nor for our competitors, who ultimately are our safety net down there. I trust my design team and their recommendation. It’s disappointing, but the right decision to make.”

The Ocean Race fleet will set off February 26 on a 12,750-mile leg from Cape Town to Itajai in Brazil.

Leg Two Results
1. Team Holcim-PRB, 17d 19h 00m 09s
2. Biotherm, 17d 19h 16min 54s
3. 11th Hour Racing Team, 17d 19h 25min 40s
4. Team Malizia, 17d 21h 06min 49s
5. GUYOT environnement – Team Europe, 17d 22h 46min 27s

Race details – Route – Tracker – Teams – Content from the boats – YouTube

IMOCA: Boat, Design, Skipper, Launch date
• Guyot Environnement – Team Europe (VPLP Verdier); Benjamin Dutreux (FRA)/Robert Stanjek (GER); September 1, 2015
• 11th Hour Racing Team (Guillaume Verdier); Charlie Enright (USA); August 24, 2021
• Holcim-PRB (Guillaume Verdier); Kevin Escoffier (FRA); May 8, 2022
• Team Malizia (VPLP); Boris Herrmann (GER); July 19, 2022
• Biotherm (Guillaume Verdier); Paul Meilhat (FRA); August 31 2022

The Ocean Race 2022-23 Race Schedule:
Alicante, Spain – Leg 1 start: January 15, 2023
Cabo Verde – ETA: January 22; Leg 2 start: January 25
Cape Town, South Africa – ETA: February 9; Leg 3 start: February 26
Itajaí, Brazil – ETA: April 1; Leg 4 start: April 23
Newport, RI, USA – ETA: May 10; Leg 5 start: May 21
Aarhus, Denmark – ETA: May 30; Leg 6 start: June 8
Kiel, Germany (Fly-By) – June 9
The Hague, The Netherlands – ETA: June 11; Leg 7 start: June 15
Genova, Italy – The Grand Finale – ETA: June 25, 2023; Final In-Port Race: July 1, 2023

The Ocean Race (formerly Volvo Ocean Race and Whitbread Round the World Race) was initially to be raced in two classes of boats: the high-performance, foiling, IMOCA 60 class and the one-design VO65 class which has been used for the last two editions of the race.

However, only the IMOCAs will be racing round the world while the VO65s will race in The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint which competes in Legs 1, 6, and 7 of The Ocean Race course.

Additionally, The Ocean Race also features the In-Port Series with races at seven of the course’s stopover cities around the world which allow local fans to get up close and personal to the teams as they battle it out around a short inshore course.

Although in-port races do not count towards a team’s overall points score, they do play an important part in the overall rankings as the In-Port Race Series standings are used to break any points ties that occur during the race around the world.

The 14th edition of The Ocean Race was originally planned for 2021-22 but was postponed one year due to the pandemic, with the first leg starting on January 15, 2023.

Source: The Ocean Race, 11th Hour Racing