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Itajaí, Brazil (April 5, 2023; Day 39) – The grueling 14,840 nautical mile Leg 3 of The Ocean Race came to a close as 11th Hour Racing Team crossed the finish in third this morning, followed two hours later by Biotherm. Both teams incurred damage which slowed their progress by over three days.
“It didn’t go the way we wanted it to go, and it tested our team, and it tested our platform, but the resilience that we all showed was absolutely outstanding,” commented 11th Hour Racing Team skipper Charlie Enright.
Setting off from Cape Town, South Africa on February 27, the team was beset by technical challenges from the very start, having to suspend racing after just 42 minutes due to broken battens in the mainsail.
The issues onboard didn’t stop there, as the team had to contend with two damaged rudders, damaged foil downlines, as well as a huge tear in the mainsail.
“We always said it was going to be tough, but I don’t think we ever imagined it was going to be as challenging as it was,” said navigator Simon Fisher, as he undergoes his sixth circumnavigation of the planet.
Eager to finish, it was five days out from Itajaí when the team was knocked down by a 50 knot squall, and then just 10 hours later they crash gybed, with the boat knocked all the way down to the surface of the sea, and the mainsail incurred a massive tear, rendering it unusable without major repair…
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