The Ocean Race: Holcim sets record over 24 hours, Malizia attacks

Leg 3 of The Ocean Race, from Cape Town to Itajai via Cape Horn, is in full swing, amidst breakdowns, a few twists and turns, and a jaw-dropping 24-hour course record for the Imoca class. Setting the mark was Kevin Escoffier’s PRB Holcim, which set the new distance in 595.26 miles at 24.80 knots average speed. Just in the Indian Ocean Escoffier had been unlucky protagonist of a shipwreck at the last Vendée Globe but this time things were quite different.

The 595 miles in 24 hours is a record for the Imoca class, just shy of Akzo Nobel’s 601.63 at the 2018 round-the-world race, which is the all-time record for this race.

Stage 3 of The Ocean Race – Holcim in the lead in Australia

Holcim transited the virtual gate positioned south of Australia in the lead in what is the longest leg ever run in the crewed round-the-world race. Behind him are struggling Malizia, 11Th Hour Racing and Biotherm, while Guyot, who suffered a serious hull failure two days after the start and was forced to retire, is out of the picture.

The first part of the stage looked like a bye for Holcim, who had already won the first two, and at the start of leg 3 saw all his opponents slowed down due to technical problems. Holcim was the only Imoca not to suffer major breakdowns during the Indian, but today’s lead is just 70 miles, despite the 24-hour record. The weather over the past week has not been favorable to the leader, who has long sailed at different angles than his pursuers due to the movements of depression systems. A few hundred miles behind Holcim, Malizia and the others sailed a direct course parallel to the orthodromic, while Holcim was forced to tack. The 400-plus mile gap became 70 on Boris Hermann’s Malizia, the most threatening opponent, despite the speed performance of Escoffier’s crew.

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This being the case, and as the 4 remaining Imoca riders approach the Pacific Ocean, the stage no longer has a true breakaway and with 7,000 miles to cover everyone can bid for victory. Not least because a few thousand miles away is a silhouette waiting for the crews, that of Cape Horn, which could once again shuffle the deck.

Tracking