Mar 13, 2023
It has been two weeks since the start of Leg 3 in Cape Town, South Africa. Since the start, Team Holcim-PRB has been unbeatable, first from the start and no other IMOCA has managed to dethrone them. In fact, at many points during the crossing they have been more than 500 miles away, although it is true that in the last few days this distance has been reduced.
In this 3rd leg, the boats are breaking records. As we mentioned in our previous Ocean Race news, in which the 11th Hour Racing Team managed to cover a distance of 544.63 nautical miles in 24 hours. One week later that record has already been smashed by the undisputed leader. The Holcim-PRB team has managed to cover a distance of 595.26 miles in 24 hours, beating the previous record by 50 miles!
So as expected, on Sunday they were the first to cross the scoring gate of this third stage. They add another 5 points to their locker, making a total of 15, since in the two previous stages they also added 5 in 5 because they were also the first.
After 6 hours, the other three boats arrived in a hotly contested final race, as they have been neck and neck for a couple of days. The surprise was given by Team Malizia, 2 or 3 days ago was in fourth place behind Biotherm and 11th Hour Racing Team. However, in the last few hours, as they were approaching the scoring gate, they managed to get into second place, against all odds adding 4 points to their locker. Third to cross was the 11th Hour Racing Team who took 3 points, while Biotherm crossed in fourth place.
On Saturday afternoon, Biotherm fell behind as they dropped off the pace and were almost 40 miles behind. Finally, in the early hours of today they managed to get close to the pace of the competitors and even overtook 11th Hour Racing and is in 3rd place. A pity, since at the decisive moment of the scoring gate they had a slump and could not score as high as expected due to the fact that they have been in second position since the beginning and it was on Saturday when for the first time they found themselves in that last position that gave them only 2 points.
The IMOCA boats are now in the middle of the Pacific on their way to Brazil. There is still a long way to go, considering that there are 6 legs, we are just at the halfway point. Half of the points have already been shared out, but there are still 3 more scoring gates left in this Ocean Race. 7500 miles separate them from the finish line in Itajaí in the south of Brazil.