Four days into The Ocean Race Atlantic, and the boat that has led from the start is starting to look vulnerable.
Team Malizia has held top spot since the gun, but their more northerly track is now working against them. Behind them, 11th Hour Racing has taken control of the chasing pack, with United by the Ocean third and DMG MORI Global One fourth.
It has not been a clean run for Boris Herrmann's crew. Two nights ago, a ballast tank leak forced the team to bail water from the bow after one of the covers holding 200 litres in place tore loose under repeated impacts.
"One of the covers holding the water in had been torn off because of the repeated impacts on the boat," Herrmann explained.
"We've lost quite a bit of ground," added Justine Mettraux, who also pointed to unhelpful, shifting winds. "It stopped us from going as far east as we would have liked, and the north-easterly wind isn't really ideal. The other boats don't have the same problem, so we've lost quite a bit of ground."
The crew, Herrmann, Cole Brauer, Mettraux and Julien Villion, watched United by the Ocean and 11th Hour Racing close the gap through the day. Paul Meilhat's team even led briefly.
By Saturday morning the geography hadn't changed much. Malizia still sat further north, the lateral gap to the fleet largely unchanged. The speed numbers, though, told a different story.
Malizia averaged just 11.7 knots over the previous four hours. 11th Hour Racing, now up into second, managed 17 knots in the same window. United by the Ocean logged 16.7 knots in third, and DMG MORI Global One 15.1 knots in fourth. Malizia gybed south that morning while the rest of the fleet pressed on east.
Nicolas Lunven, aboard DMG MORI Global One, described the race start as "very intense", blaming unpredictable weather. "We had quite a few thunderstorms last night," he said, noting an electronic blackout on Thursday as well. Like Malizia, his is a new boat, and Lunven flagged "a few small things to keep an eye on" alongside some early wear points.
"We're trying to work on unlocking the boat's performance potential," said the Solitaire du Figaro winner. "She's not at her most comfortable upwind, and we've done a lot of that so far. We'd like to get into some reaching and downwind conditions, but that should come!"
The new boats aren't the only ones with technical trouble. MSIG Europe, the only non-foiling entry in the fleet and currently sixth, suffered a headsail furler problem that forced Conrad Colman's team to bear away downwind for repairs.
The New Zealand crew lost around 30 miles sorting it out and now trail the leader by 160 miles. Still, they managed third in the previous day's "Super Sprint", the race's intermediate-sprint format rewarding the fastest teams over a 20-minute burst.
Malizia took that sprint win, their second in three days, a small consolation after a tough run.
Fortunes on the water are turning over quickly, and Lunven expects more disruption yet. "What seems likely is that we'll run into an area of high pressure around the Azores, which could cause the fleet to bunch back together."
If that happens, this contest gets a whole lot tighter.
