THE OCEAN RACE
11th HOUR’S BIG MOMENT
50 years on from when it was first held, the 2023 edition of The Ocean Race pushed on boat design, saw speed records fall and culminated in a finish that nobody could have predicted, writes Georgie Corlett-Pitt. This gruelling, 32,000nm event, which started as the Whitbread Race in 1973, once again held the sailing world rapt, silencing pre-race naysayers who wondered if it would go ahead.
And the round-the-world yacht race’s 14th edition drew to a close amidst unexpected tension in Genova, Italy. On more than one of the six previous legs, mere minutes had separated the five cutting edge contenders in the foiling IMOCA 60 class. The climax, however, was played out not on the finish line, but in the protest room. The winner, 11th Hour Racing was confirmed as such after receiving redress as she drifted into the final port two days after her competitors.
Skipper Charlie Enright and his USA-flagged 11th Hour Racing had sought the jury’s decision after damage caused by a collision at the start of the final leg forced them to retire; the perpetrator, Guyot Environnement – Team Europe skippered by Benjamin Dutreux, was also damaged and unable to continue.
As the remaining three IMOCAs raced on, playing a 2200nm game of cat and mouse over the final leg from The Hague to Genova, with every point counting towards the overall positions, 11th Hour made hasty repairs, determined to re-join the fleet in Genova for the final in-port race, which meritoriously they won (albeit the points did not count towards the overall series).
Enright described the team’s double win as a “fairy tale ending to a great experience”.
There were smiles and celebrations all round as they finally lifted the overall trophy. It was an ending no-one could have written.
Back in The Hague, Enright had told reporters dockside: “Winning three legs in a row won’t mean anything if we can’t close the deal”.
At that point, he sat at the top of the leaderboard after stoically leading his team through the highs and lows of the previous six legs - experiencing everything from cracked rudders and sail-shredding storms in the Southern Ocean to a heroes’ welcome on winning leg four from Itajaí, Brazil into their home town of Newport, USA.
Little did he know what
