The leading trio are setting a blistering pace into the final 48 hours of leg 5. Records are being set and then broken again on leg 5 of The Ocean Race.
First it was 11th Hour Racing Team,
powering to a new standard, only to
be eclipsed a short time later by
Team Holcim-PRB, who appeared to
have secured not only a new race
record, but the outright monohull
record for distance covered in 24
hours.
The trailing boat of the leading
trio was the last to nose into the
favourable conditions for breaking
records: downwind reaching in 25
knots and relatively flat water.
Simply ideal for the latest
generation IMOCAs. But if the Malizians had a later start, their endgame was brilliant. On Friday night, near 22:20 UTC, the team edged past the mark set by Team Holcim-PRB, and narrowly established the new standard - 641.13 nautical miles covered in 24 hours. The data will need to ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council to become official, but it is well past the previous mark of 618.01 miles set by the 100 foot maxi yacht Comanche in 2015. Watch Team Malizia breaking the record “Congrats to all the team, it feels a little bit unbelievable and still like everyone is hesitant to celebrate but we are super happy and have only good vibes," said Team Malizia skipper Boris Herrmann.
"It’s great to see that the boat
can do so well. We had exceptional
conditions with a flat sea, the wind
steady from the right direction, the
right angle for such a long time...
Sometimes, the waves got a little
bit shorter and we would slow down
to 18 knots and get a bit stuck in
the sea. Most of the time the boat
would pass the sea perfectly and fly
at 27 to 34 knots, it felt really
relaxed. The fourth boat in the fleet, Biotherm, continues its private race, having fallen into a different weather pattern, skipper Paul Meilhat and his team are in good spirits, but over a full day behind the leaders. The latest positions are on the Race Tracker and the leaderboard is available here. The latest news is at www.theoceanrace.com and you can follow sailing’s greatest round-the-world challenge on Eurosport with every leg departure live and on-demand on discoveryplus.com or Eurosport.com
Release: The Ocean Race 1973 S.L.U., Alicante, Spain
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May 26, 2023 |