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The Malizia in the Ocean Race
Photo: Antoine Auriol / dpa
The final phase of the second stage in the Ocean Race becomes a sailing crime thriller.
After covering more than 6000 nautical miles, the four best boats headed for Cape Town one day before the showdown bow to bow.
On Saturday afternoon, after constant leadership changes, Boris Herrmann's team Malizia had worked its way back to the top in light winds.
You can find the live tracker with the ship positions here: The Ocean Race – Leg 2
This was followed by the US team 11th Hour Racing, the Swiss team Holcim - PRB with Susann Beucke from Strande and the French team Biotherm.
Team Guyot with the Berlin skipper Robert Stanjek was able to reduce its big gap of up to 530 nautical miles to 67 nautical miles.
"Malizia - Seaexplorer" skipper Will Harris said: "It's unbelievable how tight it is!
We all had to choose our strategy to get through the light wind.
We have chosen ours which is a bit different from the others.
This can mean that we have chosen the right strategy and are winning.
Or it could mean we chose the wrong strategy and lost the race.” Harris is referring to Team Malizia's southwesternmost positioning within the fleet.
Tension in the South Atlantic continues.
Harris said, 'It's very nerve-wracking at the moment.
We're trying to get every bit of speed out of the boat.« The other boats are also fighting for every meter.
"Holcim - PRB" skipper Kevin Escoffier said: "With Top Gun you would call that a "close combat"." The Olympic silver medalist Susann Beucke, who is sailing for Team Holcim - PRB at her ocean race premiere, said in the exciting final phase: »I am used to it from Olympic sailing that it remains exciting until the finish line.
That makes it more exciting.«
Boris Herrmann, who is represented on this stage by the British Harris, awaits his team in Cape Town.
Shortly before the end of the first section, the 41-year-old suffered a severe burn on his foot from boiling water.
The »Malizia-Seaexplorer« completed the first stage over 1900 nautical miles from Alicante to Mindelo/Cape Verde in five days, 16 hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds and thus took third place.
In total, the five crews that have started have to cover 60,000 km around the world over a period of six months.
ara/dpa
