After an extraordinary ‘stop-go’ type of start to Leg 3 of The Ocean Race in Table Bay, Biotherm and 11th Hour Racing Team suffered damage requiring stopping while repairs were carried out.
Leg 3 of the race started with two and a half laps of an inshore course for the five-boat IMOCA fleet as they set out on their 12,750 nautical mile adventure towards Itajaí in Brazil.
As the start gun fired, the closest boat to the start was Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm who got away and built a good lead.
Eventually Team Malizia crossed the start line in second, followed by GUYOT environnement – Team Europe, with 11th Hour Racing Team narrowly leading Team Holcim-PRB over the start line.
Biotherm then had a problem and it was clear the team was struggling to control its sails. A radio call to the Race Committee saw the team suspend racing to return to port to make repairs.
They had broken the strop on one end of the mainsheet, then the mainsheet went too far on the gybe and pulled off the end of the track and they lost all the bearings in the system.
Next to suspend racing was 11th Hour Racing Team with damage to a batten. But the American team elected to stay out at sea to make repairs and serve the minimum two-hour period
Biotherm was able resume racing at 15:05 UTC, and 1th Hour Racing Team at 15:07 UTC.
Meanwhile, out at sea, Team Malizia was the first to find the wind around the headlands off Cape Town and started to make their way on Leg 3, along with Team Holcim-PRB and GUYOT environnement – Team Europe.
This is the big one in The Ocean Race.
From Cape Town to Itajaí, the competitors will round the three legendary capes, which punctuate a circumnavigation of the globe under sail – Good Hope, Leeuwin then the Horn – and navigate three oceans, the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic.
In this 3rd opus, nobody is going to battle full of innocent enthusiasm, tempting as that may be. An initial ranking will be made to the south of the western tip of New Zealand and a second at the finish in Brazil.
As a result, it’s a leg that scores double points, but it’s double the risk.
