The Ocean Race 2023: ‘What a homecoming’ – 11th Hour Racing Team wins Leg 4 from Itajai to Newport

Skipper Charlie Enright delighted in a dream homecoming for 11th Hour Racing Team as the American team basked in the glory in Newport, Rhode Island, having won Leg 4 of The Ocean Race.

11th Hour Racing Team arrived at the finishing line at 19:41:41 BST (2:41 pm local time) with the winning time of 17 days, two hours, 26 minutes and 41 seconds, claiming five points for the overall standings.

Team Malizia arrived in Newport in second place at 19:13:22 BST, 31:41 minutes after the winners.

Both 11th Hour Racing Team and Team Malizia are now sitting on 18 points, but the American team will win the tie break with a better position on the leaderboard. The top three teams will now be within one point when the transatlantic race starts on Sunday, May 21.

“Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s good. It’s good to be here, and what a homecoming. It’s totally crazy, intimidating almost,” said a delighted Enright.

“It’s like it was scripted. Been dreaming about this moment for a long time. To have it happen and then to have it happen like that as well, it’s really wild, very humbling.”

Asked how difficult conditions were over the 17 days of racing north from Itajai, Brazil, Enright said: “It’s different tough. I mean, you know, we always push it 100%. It’s like, the weather and the conditions determine what 100% is.

“So, you know, obviously [there were] some unfortunate incidents for some of our competitors. You never like to see that, you know, we’ve been there ourselves obviously, but knowing who they are and what they’re all about, I’m sure they’ll be back as soon as possible.

“We miss them already. But, you know, we’re happy to celebrate today as well. And, you know, we raced hard and we’re looking forward to the rest of the race because there’s a lot to play for.”

Simon Fisher, of 11th Hour Racing, added: “This was an important one for us, it’s our hometown as a team. The home of 11th Hour Racing and the home for some of our crew members as well, so yeah, to be first here is amazing.

“It was a real game of cat and mouse, to be honest. It was one of those legs where there was always lots going on and never a real opportunity to get a big break.

“It was a leg where the devil was in the detail, you always had to keep pushing.”

Team Malizia were without skipper Boris Herrmann for Leg 4 but still managed to put up a real fight in the battle for top spot, as the teams exchanged the lead over a dozen times.

“It was such a fight the whole way with 11th Hour, even to the finish,” said Will Harris, the deputy skipper.

“We had them at six miles this morning and we were hoping for a last opportunity to get them. But, you know, since probably 10 days ago, we’ve been neck and neck with them, changing places the whole time.

“We’ve really enjoyed the fight, such good racing. They beat us to it, they just made no mistakes and ended up on top. So, hats off to them, they did an amazing job.”

Reflecting on the leg as a whole, Harris said it was “very tactical”.

“It’s a lot of manoeuvres, you had to be working the whole time and I think all my muscles are complete sore now just from trimming the sails the whole time because the wind is so up and down.

“I’m so happy with how the team performed, we’ve done a great job and had a great time on the boat. We were just sailing so well, I felt. We made one or two mistakes, got a bit of bad luck in a cloud which allowed these guys to jump ahead. But apart from that, we’ve sailed super well.”

The 14th edition of The Ocean Race started from Alicante, Spain, on January 15th 2023, and will finish in Genova, the Grand Finale, in Italy early in the summer of 2023.

The final standings at the end of the race are determined based on the teams’ total score for all of the legs – less any penalty points. The team with the highest series score wins with others ranked accordingly.

– – –