The Ocean Race 2022-23: 11th Hour Racing Team set new record as pack continue to close at one-third mark

As the crews went past the one-third mark of the third leg of The Ocean Race from Cape Town to Itajai, 11th Hour Racing Team set a new record for the event.

In excellent conditions throughout Friday and the early hours of Saturday, the team sailed 586.36 nautical miles (subject to ratification), which is a new record for a distance covered in 24 hours by an IMOCA boat.

The previous official record (ratified by the World Speed Sailing Record Council – WSSRC) was 539.71nm set by Alex Thomson’s crew in 2018.

Nevertheless, 11th Hour Racing seem to have beaten all previous distances and skipper Charlie Enright was confident the record would be broken again, after last week’s 544.63nm mark.

“The record will probably fall to someone, perhaps even us again, later in this leg,” said Enright. “It’s an indelible mark that will live in history forever, however, records are meant to be broken.”

11th Hour Racing Team overtook Team Malizia overnight from Friday into Saturday to move into third, as they continue to close the gap on Team Holcim-PRB.

Holcim-PRB have led this leg from the very start back in Cape Town, up to now, and built a lead of around 600 nautical miles a week ago.

However, Biotherm, who are second, 11th Hour Racing and Malizia have taken a different route through the Southern Ocean which has seen them close the gap.

On Thursday, Holcim-PRB skipper Kevin Escoffier said: “We don’t look behind. We don’t change the way we do things. We knew they would lose time at some point.”

The four crews went past the one-third distance mark of the history-making third leg, which is the longest in The Ocean Race’s history at 12,750nm, on Saturday morning.

At 08:00 GMT, Holcim-PRB had a lead of 131nm to Biotherm, with 11th Hour Racing a further nine nautical miles behind and Malizia another five nautical miles further adrift.

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