Six boats, four sailors apiece, and one enormous stretch of Atlantic Ocean between New York and Lorient. The Ocean Race Atlantic fleet departs Brooklyn Bridge Marina on Tuesday afternoon, kicking off an inaugural event that has drawn some of the best offshore sailors in the world.
The formalities begin at 1100 local time when boats leave the marina, followed by a ceremonial start in New York Harbour at 1200 EDT (1600 UTC, 1800 CEST). That departure will be broadcast live on theoceanrace.com and picked up by international broadcasters.
The real racing starts a day later. Organisers have set the official start for 0600 local time on Wednesday 2 September, from a virtual line 145 miles offshore rather than New York Harbour itself, to keep boats clear of marine mammals and other megafauna in the coastal shipping lanes.
Early signs point to a fast start. Forecasters expect 12-15 knot northeasterlies to fill in for the fleet once they clear lighter winds nearer the coast, and there's already talk that the 24-hour distance record of 641 nautical miles could come under threat in the opening days.
Six teams, two new boats, and a lot of unknowns. That's roughly how the skippers summed it up when they fronted media on Monday.
Kojiro Shiraishi, competing in his first Ocean Race event after two years building a brand-new boat for DMG MORI, admitted there's still plenty to learn. "There are many things we don't know yet about the new boat," he said. "So this race is a very big challenge for us to test her and test ourselves."
Boris Herrmann of Team Malizia, also racing an unproven new boat, was thinking along similar lines. "It will be a great question mark, and we don't know how we will perform against these competitors and especially DMG with their new boat," he said. "So that should be super exciting to see."
Paul Meilhat, skipper of United by the Ocean and winner of last summer's The Ocean Race Europe, put it more bluntly: "I'm excited to be against these sailors and teams and particularly the two new boats because we don't know if they are fast, or really fast, or really, really fast!!"
Francesca Clapcich of 11th Hour Racing struck a confident note about her own boat's reliability. "I don't have so many gears, I'm happy to just go, you know, one gear. Full ahead! And in the end we will see at the finish line."
Conrad Colman of MSIG Europe is sailing an older, non-foiling design with the least experienced crew in the fleet, a fact he doesn't shy away from. "That puts a lot more responsibility on me because I have a lot fewer opportunities to sort of check in with an experienced sailor and ask for a second opinion," he said, though he added there's real joy in it too, watching new sailors feel a boat surf down a wave for the first time.
Oliver Heer of Embrace the Challenge summed up the mood among sailors who've spent days in the city. "We've had a great time here in the US and New York. I love it. But it's time to go sailing and with a rather sporty forecast we can't wait to get out there!"
New York has embraced the event since the fleet arrived at Brooklyn Bridge Marina last Wednesday. With backing from Impact Partner 11th Hour Racing, there's been an 'At the Helm' event on sport and leadership, Try Sailing sessions with Brooklyn Bridge Sail, a Women's Sports Foundation event on marine weather and ocean science, plus displays from the American Littoral Society and Gotham Whale, and model boat racing with Rocking the Boat at Sail Central Park.
Fans won't be short of ways to follow along. The official race tracker, powered by Predict Wind, carries live boat data and video streams, while a 30-minute OnBoard Live show airs daily from 2 September at 1100 EDT on theoceanrace.com, YouTube and broadcasters including DAZN.
There's also a virtual option for those who fancy their own tactical nous. The Official Game, run with Virtual Regatta, lets anyone play router against the fleet using the same course and weather data. As Tom Gauthier of Virtual Regatta put it: "We leave New York with the race fleet. After that it is up to you... north or south? As you try to beat the IMOCA fleet to Lorient."
