The Ocean Race: Seeking the tradewinds

(April 29, 2023; Day 7) – The four boats racing north in this leg of The Ocean Race are in a challenging position. The wind is very light and unstable. The result? Twenty four hour runs of less than 180 nautical miles. That might be a good day on a 35 foot cruising yacht, but it’s not what these IMOCAs were designed to do.

One look at the tracker tells you all you need to know – boat speeds of 5 to 8 knots are the norm today. The local weather conditions created by the clouds are making for a game of snakes and ladders on the water, with big gains and losses available even when boats are relatively close.

“The deck is dry, but the wind is very shifty,” said Seb Simon on GUYOT environnement – Team Europe who have moved up in the fleet. “This morning we could see Biotherm which was a nice surprise. It will be like this all day (generally light, gusty, clouds). It’s nice but we’d like a little bit more speed.”

The latest weather analysis has the teams sailing in light tradewinds for most of the day, but the windspeed should increase on Sunday to more moderate conditions as they close in on the northeast corner of Brazil and pass by Recife.

Then, the beginning of this coming week will see a passage through the doldrums.

Adding to the misery is the temperature.

“I feel like I’m under a magnifying glass,” said Charlie Enright from on board a baking hot 11th Hour Racing Team. “It’s warm. Very warm. A two hour stint in ‘the bubble’ (the plexiglass trimming station) is getting to be too much. The sun takes a toll.”

Enright’s team is still in the lead, but the spread from first to fourth is less then 30 miles. In these unstable conditions, any one of the four teams could emerge from the doldrums with the lead on Tuesday.

Further south, the disabled Team Holcim-PRB continue to progress towards Rio, and are expected to arrive sometime, local time.

The current leg of The Ocean Race is expected to take up to 17 days, with an ETA around May 9th or 10th.

Leg Four Rankings at 16:00 UTC*
1. 11th Hour Racing Team, distance to finish, 4019.4 nm
2. Team Malizia, distance to lead, 3.8 nm
3. GUYOT environnement, distance to lead, 21.9 nm
4. Biotherm, distance to lead, 29.9 nm
* Holcim-PRB, suspended racing

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

Overall Leaderboard (after 3 of 7 legs)
1. Team Holcim-PRB — 19 points
2. Team Malizia — 14 points
3. 11th Hour Racing Team — 13 points
4. Biotherm — 10 points
5. GUYOT environnement – Team Europe — 2 points

IMOCA: Name, 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 (1900 nm) start: January 15, 2023
Cabo Verde – ETA: January 22; Leg 2 (4600 nm) start: January 25
Cape Town, South Africa – ETA: February 9; Leg 3 (12750 nm) start: February 26
Itajaí, Brazil – ETA: April 1; Leg 4 (5500 nm) start: April 23
Newport, RI, USA – ETA: May 10; Leg 5 (3500 nm) start: May 21
Aarhus, Denmark – ETA: May 30; Leg 6 (800 nm) start: June 8
Kiel, Germany (Fly-By) – June 9
The Hague, The Netherlands – ETA: June 11; Leg 7 (2200 nm) 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: TOR