Boris Herrmann’s team Malizia won the Queen’s Cape Horn stage in the Ocean Race. The team crossed the finish line in front of Itajaí, Brazil, on Sunday morning at 7:20 a.m. and 28 seconds CEST. “Our incredible crew just won stage three of the Ocean Race,” Herrmann, 41, tweeted. He and his team were on the road for a total of 34 days, 17 hours, 10 minutes and 28 seconds.
With the triumph, Hamburg-based Herrmann, Will Harris, Nico Lunven and Rosalin Kuiper moved up to second place behind Kevin Escoffier’s Holcim-PRB team after three of seven stages of the circumnavigation. The Swiss leaders in the overall classification were expected to cross the finish line a few hours after Team Malizia. On April 23rd, the journey will continue from Brazil to Newport in the USA. Herrmann will not be on board then. He’s planning a trip home.
At the end of the historically longest stage of the Ocean Race with 14,714 nautical miles (27,250 kilometers) sailed, the German boat reached the finish line at 2:20 a.m. local time. Most recently, 22 years ago, the German “illbruck” won the Cape Horn stage in 2001 and later also the overall ranking of the race around the world.
In his podcast “End of Watch”, Boris Herrmann emphasized before the finish that he “absolutely wants to win” the historically longest stage around three quarters of the southern hemisphere. “I built the boat for the south,” explains the 41-year-old from Hamburg, whose concept for the new building, which will be completed in 2022, is currently being confirmed.
British ocean race commentator Niall Myant-Best says: “Team Malizia has that advantage in strong winds. Kevin Escoffier can’t press the gas pedal that hard.” However, the rivals on “Holcim-PRB” are faster in light winds.
Meanwhile, a “UFO” collision was reported in the rear of the Team Biotherm field. A foil and the hull of the yacht were damaged in the crash with an unknown object floating in the water (“Unknown floating object”/”Ufo”). Skipper Paul Meilhat said there was slight water ingress but the team was able to continue the stage with the foil retracted.
