A thrilling finish for The Ocean Race Europe

In Genova, Italy, the inaugural The Ocean Race Europe, comprising an international fleet of 12 yachts representing nine countries, came to a sensational end with Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team and Offshore Team Germany winning the overall titles in the respective VO65 and IMOCA 60 classes.

Starting the final day of racing - a 90-minute sprint race around the Gulf of Genova – with a close spread of points at the top, the VO65 and IMOCA 60 class teams were understandably nervous. After a slight delay, the race started in a southeasterly sea breeze of just 7 to 10 knots.

With some initial congestion in the VO65 class, which meant two boats had to tack back around and three others having to restart, class leader Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team was able to avoid the drama and achieve a clear lead for victory. Sailing Team Poland finished second, putting them second place overall, tied on points with the third-placed Dutch entry, AkzoNobel Ocean Racing.

A close race

In the IMOCA 60 class, the American 11th Hour Racing Team claimed the win, whilst the second-place position was closely contested between Offshore Team Germany and the Dutch team, LinkedOut, however Offshore Team Germany were still able to gain enough points to win the overall race title by a small margin. “I’m super-happy. My idea to build a successful team for The Ocean Race was to combine Olympic sailors with offshore experienced sailors and this is what we executed and it proved to be successful,” said German Skipper and Olympian, Robert Stanjek’s after finishing the race.

The Genova Coastal Race came just two days after Leg 3 finish - a 600-nautical mile (nm) / 1,100-kilometre (km) passage from Alicante, Spain to Genova. Scores were close within both the seven-boat VO65 and the five-boat IMOCA 60 classes, so decisions on routes around the Balearic Islands were crucial.

“There could be some big splits north and south as the [weather] models keep changing their minds,” predicted Spanish navigator Juan Vila, an America’s Cup racer drafted in by the Viva Mexico VO65 crew. “One day they tell you to go north, the next day they tell you to go south,” he explained, “So we will just have to see what we get.”

The great North/South split

In the IMOCA 60 class, the crew of Robert Stanjek’s older non-foiling Offshore Team Germany made an early commitment to taking a northern route. And in the VO65 class, Dutch team’s Childhood-I skippered by double America’s Cup-winner Simeon Tienpont also chose to stay north in search of better winds.

With winds remaining very light, the German team were able to hold their lead over the remaining four IMOCA 60s, crossing the line with an impressive lead of over 20nm/37km.

Listening to science

The move north wasn’t quite as successful for Team Childhood I, who slipped back to fourth place in the VO65 class, with Portugal-flagged Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team taking the lead.

The Portuguese team had sensed that the breeze along the Italian coast would fade overnight, so took the brave decision to tack away from the fleet and the finish line, hoping to find more wind further offshore. Luckily, the risk paid off, as they found the evening breeze and were able to jump into the lead.

“What a comeback!” exclaimed French offshore skipper Yoann Richomme just after the team’s incredible finish. “A crazy, crazy leg – it felt like two weeks of sailing. We fought hard. We knew that until the finish it wouldn’t be over because Genova is complicated. It’s more of a game of chess in these conditions than proper sailing.”

AkzoNobel Ocean Racing followed the Portuguese team’s lead to take second place with Sailing Poland crew coming in third.

One of the world’s most connected sporting events

As the Official Satellite Communications Partner to The Ocean Race, Inmarsat was proud to deliver advanced digital content capabilities, safety services and onboard connectivity for all participating teams.

The race is one of the world’s most connected sporting events, with each competing yacht equipped with our reliable maritime services and a satellite phone, supported by our 99.9% reliable global, mobile satellite L-band network.

Our FleetBroadband services powered the high-speed, always-on voice and data communications onboard the yachts, providing internet access for emails, calls, weather reporting, telemedicine and live applications to support the real-time transfer of scientific data and high-quality video streaming.

This onboard digitalisation helped each yacht to use data to their racing advantage, and also enabled the Onboard Reporters to bring all the live action to fans all over the world, allowing them to experience the race action like never before.

Safety services

Each yacht was also fitted out with Inmarsat C, which is our two-way data connection for Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) services that allows for constant tracking, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - beaming the boats’ GPS locations back to race HQ every 10 seconds.

On top of that an IsatPhone 2 reliable and robust satellite phone was stowed away in each boat’s emergency grab bag, providing GPS tracking and alert functions.

For the first time, our services also supported the real-time transfer of scientific data as The Ocean Race launched the Relay4Nature, a collaborative programme that aims to shine a light on our global responsibility protect the world’s marine eco-systems, ahead of this year’s major global environmental and ocean summits.

As the yachts raced, they deployed 30 scientific drifter buoys, which captured valuable data, enabling the measurement a range of variables to help provide insights on weather, climate change and microplastics. This information will be shared to further scientific understanding of sea surface temperature, ocean currents and the Earth’s climate.

Taking the message around the world

The next edition of The Ocean Race will take off from Alicante, Spain in October 2022 and will see yachts visit 10 cities around the world, with the Grand Finale in Genova, Italy in the summer of 2023. More boats will be equipped with specialised equipment so that this fleet of sampling boats can capture direct measurements from parts of the ocean rarely accessible for scientific research.

This data will be anlaysed by experts from around the world, to improve forecasts and predictions related to the ocean, climate and weather, providing greater understanding about long-term trends, patterns and changes.

We look forward not only to be the Official Satellite Communications Partner to the 2022-23 edition of The Ocean Race, but also to also support this invaluable research through our satellite connectivity.