The Ocean Race blasts south

The Ocean Race fleet was due in Cape Town on 12 February as we went to press, with the round the world sailors having stopped o in Cape Verde in January, before picking a route through the Doldrums and then taking a huge arc south west, towards an ice exclusion zone in the Roaring 40s for the best approach to South Africa.

The top boats were covering 500-nautical miles in 24 hours and Susann Beucke on Team Holcim-PRB said: “It’s very wet, it’s very grey, but we are really, really fast. We are trying to match the other boats. They’re pushing a lot so we have to push back.”

Skipper Charlie Enright’s 11th Hour Racing Team had the best mileage so far of 541.7 miles. The IMOCA Charal holds the uncertified fully crewed record for the IMOCA class at 558 nautical miles, while Alex Thomson’s solo Hugo Boss has a certified mark of 539.71 nautical miles. The Ocean Race record is Simeon Tienpont’s AkzoNobel at 602 nautical miles.

“Moving from your bunk to the back of the cockpit, which is about five steps, can take about a minute,” said Jack Bouttell on board 11th Hour Racing Team. “You have to plan each step with coordination as to which handhold you’re going to hang on to.

“And then there is the noise of the boat and how loud the hum is from the foil. The louder the hum, the faster you’re going and the bigger risk of a nosedive following that. There are times you hear the hum come on and you just hold something and don’t move and just wait for the inevitable. And then you can carry on with your day. But cooking, going to the bathroom, changing clothes, it’s all very di cult.”