The Ocean Race: Fleets move into Bay of Biscay in search of stronger winds in Leg 7 ahead of Grand Finale

As both the IMOCA and VO65 fleets are through the English Channel, they can now focus on the Bay of Biscay and North Atlantic.

The target now is to leave the Bay of Biscay to port and sail down the Iberian coast before turning into the Mediterranean.

After two days of gentle winds, Sunday morning brought a light to moderate breeze, but in the general direction of travel, meaning choices will need to be made. Further west there is likely to be more wind, but it comes at a cost of extra distance. This tactical choice over the next day or so could be decisive.

“We lost a bit on Biotherm overnight, but still have a good lead at the moment. So far, so good,” said Benjamin Schwartz on IMOCA fleet leader, Team Holcim-PRB.

His team lost a little over 10 miles in the early hours of Sunday, but have managed to stabilise now and are set up directly west of Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm team, and almost 50 miles clear of Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia.

The VO65 fleet has moved further west than the IMOCAs, especially the race leader, WindWhisper Racing Team who are over 70 miles west of second-placed Mirpuri-Trifork and Team JAJO in third.

The decision ahead for WindWhisper skipper Daryl Wislang is to work out when there is enough west in the wind direction for them to tack and start making miles south – at the moment (09:00 UK time) his team is pushing nearly directly west, and not making miles towards their goal.

“It’s definitely been a tricky time with very, very light winds,” explained Viva Mexico skipper Erik Brockmann, in a pack of four VO65s chasing the leader.

“The last days have seemed more like the doldrums with a little bit of everything mixed in. Now we finally have some breeze and have sailed all night and I think we are finally getting into the southerlies we have been expecting. Only WindWhisper has been able to get into the wind first (and get away), but we can see the others, so it should be a fun day today.”

Two boats returned to The Hague after the dramatic collision that marred the start of Leg 7 for the IMOCA fleet.

On Sunday morning, GUYOT environnement – Team Europe confirmed they would not be able to repair their boat in time to get to Genova for the Grand Finale.

“We wanted to finish this race and we put all our power towards that, but we try to go to Genova like this – no bowsprit, no downwind sails – we will arrive well after the stopover,” said skipper Benjamin Dutreux.

“We have spent the past six months with all the other teams. We have that link together now. There is no way we will miss the arrival of the boats in Genova. All of our team will be in Genova to welcome the boats. Whether our boat is there or not there, changes nothing. This is a human story and we want to be there to share that with them.”

Still in The Hague, Charlie Enright’s team is continuing to work around the clock on repairs to its boat with the aim reaching Genova for the Grand Finale.

“The time, the effort, the craftsmanship, the dedication is unbelievable.”

Enright said dockside on Saturday afternoon as he looked at the work happening on the boat. “I feel so lucky to have this level of dedication to the cause. When you get into situations like this you find out what you’re made of and I’m so proud of what we’ve seen so far.”

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