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Cape Town, South Africa (February 26, 2023) – It was an extraordinary ‘stop-go’ type of start to Leg 3 of The Ocean Race in Table Bay as the five-boat IMOCA fleet set out on their 12,750 nautical mile adventure towards Itajaí in Brazil.
The race started with two and a half laps of an inshore course which was plagued by both drifting conditions and full blow as the offshore winds weaved past Table Mountain before reaching the fleet.
A pod of three whales sighted in the original starting area meant the race committee had to make a late change to setting up the race course. The result was a start line with next to no wind.
But with massive wind anticipated beyond the start line, the under-staffed teams had small jibs and two reefs in the main, and were severely under-powered as they limped toward the line. Only Biotherm had the timing right as the other four boats were stranded, just over a hundred metres away.
It wasn’t long before Paul Meilhat’s team found 25 knots of wind gusting around the edge of Table Mountain and his Biotherm team shot away into an impressive lead as the rest of the fleet drifted across the start line well after the start had opened.
Biotherm continued to stretch away to what was almost a 600 metre advantage over the rest of the fleet who eventually hooked into the 25-knot wind and accelerated up to speeds of 30 knots or more…
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