(March 1, 2023; Day 4) – Holcim – PRB leads fleet east while two teams have suffered setbacks over the past 24 hours in The Ocean Race, with GUYOT environnement electing to return to Cape Town while Team Malizia is down a sail. The fleet is pushing east at pace, trying to hold on to the strong winds of a southern latitude low pressure system.
Team Holcim – PRB is making the best of it, but the news of the day centres around GUYOT environnement – Team Europe who have elected to turn back towards Cape Town after suffering what the team and its technicians are calling a ‘hull sandwich failure’ – essentially a structural problem with the boat.
“I was just coming off watch and I was just about to get into my bed and I could see on the opposite side of the boat there was a pelican case tied to the floor and it was moving,” said Annie Lush. “I didn’t think I’d seen it move like that before and when I went to check I could hear the noise of delamination. We could hear it and see it moving up and down. We spoke to the architects and there is no way we can fix this out here, so we have to return to Cape Town.”