New setback at the start of the seventh leg of the Ocean Race

Before the start of the seventh leg, the in-port race was held in The Hague. New in-port racing for both categories, IMOCA and VO65. The surprise was in the IMOCA boats, as GUYOT Environment-Team Europe came out the winner of this race, being the last in all the general classifications. On the VO65 side, it was the JAJO team who took the victory, something very celebrated in the Netherlands as they come from Holland.

A few days after this in-port race, yesterday, Thursday June 15th, when the boats set off for Genoa in this seventh leg of the IMOCAs, we witnessed a major setback.

The leader of the rankings, the 11th Hour Racing Team, had to temporarily suspend the race, just 15 minutes after the start! GUYOT environnement - Team Europe inadvertently collided with 11th Hour Racing. The collision caused damage to both boats, and they had to return to the port of The Hague. Fortunately no crew members were injured.

On the face of it, it appears to be a breach of the rules on the part of GUYOT. Skipper Benjamin Dutreux says he didn't see the 11th Hour Racing Team boat until it was too late. Once again, GUYOT Environment announced that it was withdrawing from Leg 7 and has offered all possible assistance to the 11th Hour Racing Team. We still don't know what will happen with the leaders, we will be very attentive and we hope they can come back as soon as possible, otherwise they will have to withdraw from this leg and keeping the lead would be difficult.

Right now, 20 hours after the start, Team Holcim-PRB is in first place, followed by Biotherm and Malizia respectively.