Malizia went into the Ocean Race Atlantic as the fleet's newest boat and its most dominant, leading from the start and winning two of the first three daily Super Sprints. Twenty-four hours later, that same boat sits fourth, nursing two corresponding mechanical problems, on what has become a difficult first ocean race for a brand new build.
The bigger of the two issues involved Malizia striking an object in the water at high speed overnight, tearing a pneumatic ram clean out of its mounting, part of the system that controls the boat's port-side foil. Boris Herrmann's first words after the impact, as his crew rushed up on deck, were "We're still in the race, but..." It took the full crew two to three hours to assess the damage and jury-rig a fix. The team is back sailing at close to full speed, but can no longer trim that foil for lift, described on board as sailing "with one hand behind their back," a real handicap given how little opportunity the course ahead offers to tack or jibe onto the other side.
Ocean Race Atlantic: Distance to Finish
Tracker snapshots, Day 1 to Day 3
Source: The Ocean Race Atlantic live tracker
On top of that, Malizia is also dealing with a ballast tank leak, understood to be adding unwanted weight and helping close the gap for the boats chasing it down. So two issues, a damaged foil system and a leaking tank, on the boat that arrived in New York as the fleet's clear pre-race benchmark.
New leader: 11th Hour Racing
With Malizia dealing with its problems, 11th Hour Racing, skippered by Francesca Clapcich, has moved into the overall lead, roughly 15 nautical miles clear of the pack at last check. United by the Ocean sits second, DMG Mori third.
Current standings, distance to finish:
11th Hour Racing – 1867.2nm to finish
United by the Ocean – 1871.8nm (4.6nm behind 11th Hour Racing)
DMG Mori – 1882.7nm (15.5nm behind 11th Hour Racing)
Malizia – 1922.9nm (55.7nm behind)
Embrace the Challenge – 1996.1nm (129.0nm behind)
MSIG Europe – 2179.5nm (312.3nm behind)
Malizia's 24-hour swing, from leading outright to 55.7nm off the pace, is the single biggest reversal of the race so far.
MSIG Europe still paying for their furling repair
As reported yesterday, Conrad Colman's all-Kiwi crew aboard MSIG Europe spent hours overnight on day three fighting a snapped furling line on their J2 headsail. That repair is still costing them. Forced to sail dead downwind at what turned out to be the peak of the breeze, they lost the front of it entirely. They've since had to jibe twice in 12 hours just managing the fallout, and are now sailing in noticeably lighter, differently angled wind than the rest of the fleet, barely six knots at one point, under a light-wind spinnaker.
While the front five boats are getting pounded by a rough, sleep-depriving sea state, MSIG Europe's lighter conditions have given Colman's crew an actual chance to rest, even if none of them would trade positions to get it. Onboard reporter Georgia Schofield was again seen flying her drone off the boat. Crewmates Anna Merchant and Megan Thomson, long-time match-racing and double-handed offshore partners both in their late twenties, remain aboard, with Colman himself reportedly resting below after the hours he put in on the bow at dawn during the original repair.
Super Sprint standings
United by the Ocean took today's 20-minute Super Sprint outright. On the cumulative Super Sprint scoreboard, though, Malizia still leads with 19 points from three wins, despite its overnight troubles, with DMG Mori and 11th Hour Racing tied for second on 16 points each.
DMG Mori's steady climb, and an old boat holding on
DMG Mori, sailing a boat only a few months old, started this leg on the back foot, dropping as low as fourth or fifth early on before steadily working back to third. Skipper Kojiro Shiraishi's crew are treating every mile as a chance to learn the new boat's limits in conditions that would rarely be chosen for training.
Embrace the Challenge, the oldest foiling design left in the fleet, sits fifth, still holding on to the pack ahead of it. Skipper Oliver Heer put it plainly: "We currently have dropped behind quite a bit, but I don't necessarily think it's about boat speed. There is clearly a performance difference between the generations, but I don't think it's impossible to overcome it in certain situations. This race for us is a great learning platform."
Aboard United by the Ocean, Mariana Lobato has spent much of the leg standing rather than sitting, and was seen with the autopilot controls in hand as the boat needed coaching through the conditions under smallest headsail and a reefed main.
The biggest weather runs are still to come
The fleet remains locked into the low-pressure system it's been chasing since day three, and the next 24 hours are being described as the best remaining chance for the biggest daily mileage while the front holds. After that, the breeze is expected to lighten, and the final approach into Lorient is shaping up as tricky and transition-heavy, with no guarantees on what the wind will be doing by the time the fleet gets there.
Malizia still leads the Super Sprint series and remains within striking distance of the podium on the water. Whether it can hold that against a damaged foil and a leaking tank, over five more days to Lorient, is now the leg's biggest open question.
