Offshore Team Germany Are IMOCA The Ocean Race Europe Winners
Offshore Team Germany have won the first edition of The Ocean Race Europe, clinching the overall victory by no more than four meters on the very last race, beating 11th Hour Racing and LinkedOut to second and third steps on the podium.
Offshore Team Germany’s crew was skippered by former German Star sailor and world champion Robert Stanjek and includes Britain’s match racer turned Team SCA round the world racer Annie Lush as well as home favourite Vendéen Vendée Globe skipper Ben Dutreux who, of course finished ninth on his first Vendée Globe. Dutreaux raced the Vendée Globe on a non-foiling Farr design which was previously Kojiro Shiraishi’s Spirit of Yukoh. And so he is well versed in making older generation boats go well, such as Offshore Team Germany’s Owen Clarke design which started life as Bubi Sanso’s Acciona.
When LinkedOut crossed the Stage 2 finish line into Alicante, Spain Thomas Ruyant and his crew delivered their first victory for the skipper from the north of France. Triumphant on The Ocean Race Europe leg between Cascais (Portugal) and Alicante (Spain), the LinkedOut team took first place, with one offshore race and one coastal race till to be sailed.
Having had to endure the pain of abandoning the Vendée Globe early in the race when his mast broke, Nicolas Troussel is proving how competitive the Juan K designed Corum L’Epargne is among the IMOCA fleet in the early stages of The Ocean Race Europe.
Webdoc Episode #12: A Hollywood Cliffhanger Like No Other…
Every Sunday, we invite you to relive this 9th edition of the Vendée Globe through a webdoc, which offers the main news and video and audio documents of the period.
The Ocean Race Europe Sees The IMOCA Fleet Back in Action
For the first time since the finish of the Vendée Globe, five IMOCAs will return to the race course as five teams line up to compete in "The Ocean Race Europe", a new, crewed race with stopovers on a course linking Lorient in France and Genoa in Italy. It is a format which has been tried before in the Mediterranean and off the Atlantic coast but for sure it is a new challenge for the current generation of boats and sailors and a very welcome opportunity after the longest non stop solo challenge round the world. The race starts this Saturday, May 29th.
