The toughest day yet
Life for the crews onboard the six IMOCA boats competing in The Ocean Race has gone from hard to harder over the past day.
Generally strong winds are propelling the boats at high speeds. Normally a good thing. But the wind and sea state angles are combining to create the most uncomfortable environment possible for a transatlantic passage and this is starting to take a toll.
The noise and movement make sleep very difficult to come by. The work rate required to keep sailing fast and safe is high. And inevitably there are problems to deal with that mean many sailors are hitting their limits.
Team Malizia, who had been leading the race for most of the time up until today suffered a setback overnight as skipper Boris Herrmann explained on Saturday morning.
“We hit something at high speed with our port foil and heard a big noise and found some damage on the foil system,” he said.. “So we slowed down the boat to work on a solution. Now we’re going again but with slight limitations on how we can use our foil so let’s see how well we go. I’m not quite sure yet. But the team did really well working together to sort out this issue.”
The repair cost the team the lead. The new Malizia 4, which has often appeared to be the fastest boat in the fleet now sits in fourth place on distance to finish, behind the leading trio of Team Francesca Clapcich powered by 11th Hour Racing, United by the Ocean and the DMG MORI Sailing Team. You can see the current fleet positions on the PredictWind Tracker.
For skipper Francesca Clapcich, getting her 11th Hour Racing boat to the front of the fleet against a faster rival has been challenging.
“They had really high speeds at some points,” she said about Malizia. “I don’t think it was so much about tactical decisions or strategic positioning because I think we are doing a pretty good job on that. They had just been faster.”
Across the fleet the conditions are taking a toll.
“We’re just bashing along in this sea state,” said Sara Stone on United by the Ocean. “Everyone is trying to hang on and go fast and sleep when they can… but it’s impossible because we keep getting launched in the air every few seconds.”
“It’s not easy to find sleep,” agreed co-skipper Paul Meilhat. “But when you’re tired, you sleep!”
“It’s crazy… Life on board is hard. Some strong winds and reaching angles. It’s really tough. We’ve put some helmets on for safety. Just trying to hang on… Send us good vibes!!” said Francesca Clapcich from on board 11th Hour Racing.
“Today we are reaching - 90-degree true wind angle and up to 30 knots of wind,” explained Sam Davies on board DMG MORI Global One. “It’s bumpy and noisy but we’re really sending it. Our average speed is around 27 knots. It’s going to be like this for another day and a half. No one is getting much sleep but I think that’s the same on all the boats.”
“We’re all exhausted, tired, stressed… It is very difficult to sail and live on these boats in conditions this sporty but we're out here enjoying it having a good time together,” said skipper Oliver Heer on Embrace the Challenge. “i think we’ve shown we have good pace (for an older generation boat) so there is a performance difference but it’s not impossible to overcome in certain situations. This race is a fantastic learning platform for us, to get out in these conditions, racing in this fleet, is very valuable for us.”
Saturday’s Super Sprint saw skipper Kojiro Shiraishi on the DMG MORI Global One boat take the win for the first time and move into a tie with Team Malizia at the top of the Super Sprint leaderboard. The DMG MORI Sailing Team has had a very strong 24 hours or so and is now pushing hard for the race lead.
