The inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic got underway today from a virtual start line some 150 nautical miles offshore from New York, where the six international IMOCA crews gathered after a speed-restricted overnight transit past a local marine mammal protection area.
Light winds during the night had meant slower progress than expected for the fleet – which left New York Harbor after a ceremonial start and parade of sail yesterday morning local time – with the race start push to 1000 EDT / 1400 UTC / 1600 CEST.
At start time the fleet powered off the virtual line under cloudy skies, heading into a bumpy 0.8-metre sea and a solid 17-18 knots of north-easterly wind that saw the 60-foot yachts scoot south-eastward at between 15 and 18 knots of boat speed. Team Malizia led across the line, with the full fleet following close behind – all had started racing within 30-seconds of the gun.
Ahead of the six competing teams – United by the Ocean (FRA) led by Paul Meilhat (FRA) and Mariana Lobato (POR), Team Malizia (GER) skippered by German Boris Herrmann, Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing (USA) skippered by Italian-American Francesca Clapcich, Embrace the Challenge (SUI) skippered by Swiss sailor Oliver Heer, DMG MORI Sailing Team (JPN) skippered by Japan’s Kojiro Shiraishi, and MSIG Europe (NZL) skippered by New Zealand’s Conrad Colman – is a high-speed 3,000-nautical-mile transatlantic passage to Lorient, France, the spiritual home of high-performance ocean racing.
“The next few hours (after the start) will be very important while the fleet is still close together,” said Sara Stone from on board United by the Ocena. “The small gains now could make a big difference over the next days.”
As the six crews – each made up of two men and two women (plus an onboard reporter) – settle into their individual watch patterns, the sailors’ focus is likely to be on how best to hook into an east-moving low pressure system that is setting up to the north of the fleet and could take the yachts at high speed almost all the way across the Atlantic.
“We have just been trying to go fast since the start,” said Francesca Clapcich from on board 11th Hour Racing. “Malizia seems to be setting a different pace from anyone else, and maybe that’s the performance of the new boat. We are going to keep pushing, try to stay close, not lose contact and just go as fast as we can.”
This first day of racing also meant the first of the Daily OnBoard Live Shows (1700 CEST each race day) and the new Super Sprint series, a 20-minute race within a race that was won on Wednesday by Boris Herrmann and his crew, with the skipper hand-steering his new Team Malizia boat to victory.
The Super Sprint measures each boat’s distance in any direction over the same 20-minute period and is a separate ranking of the teams based on this series of speed tests. After the first session Team Malizia sits ahead of DMG Mori and Embrace the Challenge.
This edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic is the most accessible ever, with live connections to the fleet each day for the OnBoard Live Show at 1700 CEST / 1500 UTC via www.theoceanrace.com and YouTube along with international broadcasters. Learn more here.
