Sailing, The Ocean Race: the World Tour and the longest stage ever

The longest in the entire history of the World Tour. The third of The Ocean Race, precisely the crewed world tour, which starts on Sunday 26th from Cape Town, South Africa, destination Itajaì, Brazil, with its 12,750 miles (at the change in km they make 23,613) goes straight into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest ever crewed around the world. But it has precedents. In fact, it is not the first time that the 10,000 miles have been exceeded. It happened at the 2008-2009 edition of the then Volvo Ocean Race. It was for the fifth stage that took the competitors from Qingdao, China to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A sprint of 12,300 miles, just under 22,780 km, which also marked the first time of the tour which, after Kochi, in India, also made a stop in China. But that was also the “first” of a tour without the passage of the famous “tre Capi”. In fact, Good Hope and Cape Horn were missing Cape Leeuwin, south of Australia, “jumped” by the route from India. That fifth leg, which got off to a bad start for Telefonica Blue which hit a rock at the start, was won by Magnus Olson’s Ericsson 3 which took 40 days and five hours to get to Rio, sailing in the China Sea, the Central and Southern Pacific and, Cape Horn, the South Atlantic.

Previous

—

For the record, second was Torben Grael, third Kean Read with Puma. But going back to the stage of 2009 it is difficult to compare with the route that awaits the five Imocas of The Ocean Race, this time. In 2009 we started in the northern hemisphere and in the descent towards Horn, leaving New Zealand to starboard (right), the competitors had to pass the Tropic of Cancer, the Equator, the Tropic of Capricorn, cross the Polynesian Sea to go to catch the westerly winds that circle the Earth unhindered. Now the stage that starts on Sunday from Cape Town is instead entirely in the southern hemisphere and entirely dedicated to the winds and depressions that run from the West and create the famous Roaring Forties and Howling Fifty. With an immediate difficulty. Just rounded Cape of Good Hope, 50 miles south of Cape Town, heading towards Cape Agulhas, another 100 miles, the crews will have to deal with the contrary current which takes its name from that Cape and which flows from East to West, there where the Atlantic and the Indian meet creating a constantly boiling pot.

Big pot

—

After Cape Agulhas it will be a question of decreasing latitude to slip into the flows from the West and running towards the East parading along the limits of the ice and navigating between 40° and 50° South. Also in this edition, to avoid risks, the organizers have placed an exclusion zone which will prevent competitors from going too low in latitude and entering the iceberg-risk ocean strip. But not only. They also placed a “gate” at the longitude of 166° 25′ East, roughly at the western tip of New Zealand. A flying finish line with relative classification and assignment of points that will be added to those that will be conquered on the finish line in Itajaì. But from the “gate” to get to Itajaì, having passed the “Punto Nemo”, the most distant point in the world from any landmass, you will first need to round Cape Horn. A passage that, with the winds dominated by the West and the current flowing in the opposite direction, in that funnel between the last offshoot of South America and the Arctic Ocean, leaves little room for inventiveness. It is necessary to pass as close to the ground as possible because, if you stay too far out to avoid the collision between wind and current, you risk encountering ice. Dubbed Horn the difficulties are not over. We must in fact decide whether to leave the Falkland-Malvinas to port or starboard, in this case lengthening the road towards the finish line but, perhaps, avoiding the gusts of wind that descend from the Andes. And finally there is the ascent along the South American coast to reach Itajaì. In short, the 12,750 miles of the third stage of The Ocean Race 2022-2023 are a condensation of everything that is a world tour in its most legendary, muscular and heroic version. A stage that requires technique, endurance and even courage. Because tackling the South Seas means sailing where as many as five sailors have disappeared, swept off their boats by the force of the waves as they sailed around the world crewed. The last one, John Fisher, fell into the sea 1400 miles west of Cape Horn at the 2017-2018 edition. So what will happen now that facing the oceans between Cape Town and Itajaì are five Imocas, equipped with canting keels, but above all very fast thanks to their foils and in regattas, not solo as already happens at the Vendée Globe, but with a crew? A question that makes this stage even more unique. Duration predictions? Difficult. If you like numbers, you can take the time taken by Yannik Bestaven, winner with the Imoca Maître Coq IV of the last Vendée Globe, as a datum for a fleeting comparison. It took Yannik Bestaven exactly one month to go from Cape Town to Cape Horn: from 1 December 2020 to 2 January 2021. Will the crews of the five Imocas know, or will they be able to do better?