Four days into The Ocean Race Atlantic, and the boat that has led from the gun is starting to look vulnerable.
Team Malizia's northerly position, which served them well early on, has turned into a liability. Behind them, Team Francesca Clapcich powered by 11th Hour Racing has muscled to the front of the chasing pack, with United by the Ocean third and DMG MORI Sailing Team fourth.
Boris Herrmann's crew found that out the hard way two nights ago, when a leak developed in one of Malizia's ballast tanks. Two hundred litres of water needed bailing from the bow.
"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 sails on Malizia alongside Herrmann, Cole Brauer and Julien Villion. Shifting winds and an unhelpful north-easterly haven't made life any easier. "It stopped us from going as far east as we would have liked, and the north-easterly wind isn't really ideal," she said. "The other boats don't have the same problem, so we've lost quite a bit of ground."
United by the Ocean and 11th Hour Racing both closed the gap through the day, with Paul Meilhat's crew even taking the lead for a few hours.
By Saturday morning the picture looked much the same as before: Malizia still furthest north, the lateral gap to their rivals largely unchanged. But the leaders are struggling for pace. Over the past four hours they averaged just 11.7 knots, against 17 knots for 11th Hour Racing, now up into second. United by the Ocean managed 16.7 knots in third, DMG MORI Global One 15.1 knots in fourth. Malizia gybed south this morning while the rest of the fleet pressed on east.
DMG MORI Global One's Nicolas Lunven called the start "very intense", pointing to unpredictable weather that included an electronic blackout on Thursday and a run of thunderstorms overnight. Like Malizia, his boat is new, and there are, in his words, "a few small things to keep an eye on" along with some wear points still being ironed out.
"We're trying to work on unlocking the boat's performance potential," said Lunven, winner of the latest Solitaire du Figaro. "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!"
Technical gremlins haven't spared the rest of the fleet either. MSIG Europe, the only non-foiling boat in the race and currently sixth, ran into trouble with its headsail furler. Conrad Colman's crew had to bear away and sail downwind while repairs were carried out.
That cost the New Zealand crew around 30 miles, and they now sit 160 miles behind the race leader. Still, there was a silver lining: MSIG Europe claimed an impressive third place in yesterday's "Super Sprint", the sailing equivalent of an intermediate sprint in cycling, rewarding the fastest teams over a 20-minute period.
Malizia won that sprint, their second victory in three days, a welcome boost after their recent setbacks.
Out here, nothing stays settled for long. Lunven reckons a ridge of high pressure near the Azores could bunch the fleet back together before this is done.
"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," he said.
That would shake things up once again, and make an already gripping race even more unpredictable.
