Sailing – Boris Herrmann third at the Ocean Race – Sport

Ocean sailor Boris Herrmann and his crew advanced to third place on the king’s stage of the Ocean Race. After major problems with the high-tech yacht Malizia-Seaexplorer, the five-man team is now well underway in the Southern Ocean and ranked just ahead of the US team 11th Hour Racing on Tuesday morning. At the time, the Swiss team Holcim-PRB led by Kevin Escoffier was the leader on the 12,750 nautical mile leg from Cape Town to Itajai in Brazil, with a comfortable 450 nautical mile lead. The trio of pursuers, including Malizia, is led by Frenchman Paul Meilhat (Team Biotherm). Hermanns Malizia had major problems on the first days of the third of seven stages that started on February 26 and had to repair a crack in the mast, among other things. Herrmann, who coordinated the repairs, said: “It takes a lot of courage to do what Will did. The whole team did an epic job.” Herrmann himself is afraid of heights. In any case, the boat is now fully resilient again, the crew is making progress in sometimes “extremely uncomfortable conditions”, as co-skipper Will Harris now reports: “We are definitely still in the race and that’s a long time to come.”

On the Cape Town to Itajai leg, teams pass all three major capes: Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn. It is the second of up to five weeks of racing. Team Guyot, who have returned to Cape Town, are still investigating the hull damage. Estimating a repair time of about a week, the team plans to ferry the boat to Itajai and rejoin the Ocean Race.