The penultimate stage of the Ocean Race started on Thursday in Aarhus, Denmark. Now the boats are in Kiel – the NDR is broadcasting extensively live from the fly-by in the fjord.
The yachts only have to cover 800 nautical miles on the sixth section. The stage should therefore be very exciting – with only small gaps between the competitors. The first boats should already reach the destination in the Netherlands on Sunday.
The passage of the Kiel inner fjord is expected for Friday afternoon between 3.30 p.m. and 4.30 p.m.
“This stage will be completely different from what we’ve seen from the offshore stages so far. We’re closer to shore, in cellphone coverage and closer to the opponents,” said Team Malizia’s skipper Boris Herrmann.
For the Malizia, however, the stage began with a mishap. The boat crossed the start line two seconds early and had to do a squiggle. In light winds, 11th Hour initially set the pace and was able to pull away a little.
Guyot repaired – fleet complete again
After a large-scale repair, the Guyot is back, completing the fleet. That the German-French team made it back into the race at all is a small sailing miracle.
“With damage like that, you can take a three or four month break from sailing,” said co-skipper Robert Stanjek in an interview with NDR before the start of the stage.
Maybe Guyot will finally be spared technical problems on the shortest stage.
The crew around co-skipper Stanjek no longer has a chance of overall victory. Leaders 11th Hour, Holcim and Malizia make up for it among themselves. After two stage wins in a row, 11th Hour around skipper Charlie Enright seems to have the best cards at the moment.
The overall standings in the Ocean Race
1. 11th Hour Racing – 28 points
2. Team Holcim – 27 points
3. Team Malizia – 24 points
4. Biotherm Racing – 17 points
5. GUYOT environment – Team Europe – 2 points
Holcim with a new skipper
Especially since there has been little talk about sailing at Holcim lately. Skipper Kevin Escoffier resigned from his post after it was revealed that he “behaved inappropriately” towards a young woman at a party in Newport.
Benjamin Schwartz takes over the tiller for him. “The boat is fast and we still have everything in our own hands,” emphasized the Frenchman with a view to the overall victory.
Malizia wants to attack again
Despite being four points behind, Boris Herrmann’s Malizia is also optimistic about the overall standings. “We want to make up a few points on the front teams,” announced Will Harris as a goal for the sixth stage. Of course, the best way to do this would be to win in The Hague.
This topic in the program:
Schleswig-Holstein Magazine | 09.06.2023 | 19:30 o’clock
