On Sunday, leg one of the 2023 Ocean Race ended, with Team Holcim-PRB taking first place in the IMOCA class. They completed the leg in just over five days and eleven hours. GUYOT environment-Team Europe finished fifth in six days, twelve hours, 20 minutes and 37 seconds. In the VO65 class, WindWhispering Racing took first place, finishing in five days, sixteen hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds. As of Monday morning, the VO65, Viva Mexico, was still racing with about 102 nautical miles to go to Cabo Verde. The boats started in Alicante, Spain. 

The Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team (VO65) retired from leg one. The team entered an exclusion zone in South Gibraltar and missed a mark on the course. Instead of correcting their error, they chose to retire from the leg. This retirement created an opening for Austrian Ocean Racing to slip into third place and puts Viva Mexico in fifth place rather than sixth.

“We are very disappointed for this,” admitted Mirpuri skipper Antonio Fontes. “But the crew has done an amazing job getting us out of the Mediterranean in very hard conditions. Then we had the superfast sailing conditions in the Atlantic and it was a lot of fun racing from Gibraltar to here.”

While in Cabo Verde the competitors are restricted in what they can do. Any onboard work must be done by the sailing team themselves. There will be no In-port race in Cabo Verde. The start of Leg Two will be on Wednesday, January 25th at 5:10 a.m. local time with the boats headed for Cape Town, South Africa.

Leg One Rankings at 12:00 UTC – 22 January 2023

IMOCA
1. Team Holcim-PRB, winner leg one, finished – 5d 11h 01m 59s
2. 11th Hour Racing Team, finished – 5d 13h 50m 45s
3. Team Malizia, finished – 5d 16h 35m 21s
4. Biotherm, finished – 6d 8h 47m
5. GUYOT environment – Team Europe, finished – 6d 12h 20m 37s

VO65
1. WindWhisper Racing, finished, 5d 16h 35m 21s
2. Team JAJO, finished, 6d 4h 52m 52s
3. Austrian Ocean Racing-Team Genova, finished, 6d 19h 13m 54s
4. Ambersail 2, finished, 6d 21h 49m 04s
5. Viva Mexico, 690.7 miles to leader
6. Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team – Retired from leg