The crew of Team Malizia approached the coast to catch a breath of ten knots, overtaking Biotherm and Holcim-PRB in the last hours of the stage.
The German team Team Malizia won Tuesday in Genoa (Italy) the last stage of The Ocean Race, a race around the world in a crew with stopovers, but the overall winner will not be designated until Thursday, after decision of an international jury. Leaving from The Hague (Netherlands) on June 15, the five sailors aboard the monohull skippered by the German Boris Herrmann crossed the finish line at the end of the morning, completing a six-month journey around the world that began in Alicante last January.
“It ends very well for us», rejoiced on arrival the navigator Nicolas Lunven. “We started the stage a bit off the track, in fairly weak weather conditions, but there was this lucky shift for us. Our campaign with Malizia is a great success“, he estimated. In the absence of wind on arriving in Genoa, the crew of Team Malizia approached the coast to catch a breath of around ten knots, overtaking Biotherm and Holcim-PRB in the last hours of the leg.
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The winner is not yet known
“I am very happy and very proud of this team. It was a privilege to work with themsaid skipper Boris Herrmann. At the end of this world tour, Holcim-PRB is one point ahead in the general clification over the Americans of 11th Hour and Team Malizia is third.
But the official winner of the race is not yet known. Charlie Enright’s boat was hit at the start of this final stage by Guyot-Environnement’s sailboat (5th overall behind Biotherm) and had to retire immediately.
Leader before the start of the last stage, 11th Hour filed a complaint with the race organisers, not being the cause of the collision, which Benjamin Dutreux, the skipper of Guyot-Environnement, admitted. A jury of the International Sailing Federation must rule on Thursday on the request of the American crew and could, at the end of the debates, grant a bonus of one or more points crowning the winner, who will succeed Dongfeng during the 2018 edition.