BATTLING TO THE FINISH

Skipper Kevin Escoffier and his Team Holcim-PRB won Leg 2 of The Ocean Race from Cabo Verde to Cape Town after a tense battle through the final miles of the race.

With hours to go, four teams were inthe fight for the leg win, with Biotherm, 11th Hour Racing Team and the HolcimPRBcrews racing in lockstep in light and changeable conditions. Team Malizia was just some 20 miles to the south.

Just three hours before the finish, Kevin Escoffier and his team finally popped up at the head of the rankings, having been able to sail a slightly better angle at a similar speed towards Cape Town.

Remarkably, Paul Meilhat and his crew on Biotherm crossed the line just 16 minutes later, on their way to pipping Charlie Enright and his team on 11th Hour Racing Team Mãlama to the post by no more than nine minutes.

This is the second consecutive leg win for Team Holcim-PRB, whichtherefore maintains a perfect record and extendsits advantage onthe leaderboard.

With Holcim-PRB now sitting on 10 points, Mãlama in second place on seven and Biotherm, which sees Britain Sam Davies join the team for Leg 3, a point further back on six, the race is nicely set-up for the massive challenge of Leg 3, which scores double points.

Sam Goodchild, on Holcim-PRB, knows the boats will be on the limit during the marathon Leg 3 to Brazil:“Everyone has little technical problems, but fortunately we are all here in South Africa,”he said.“I hope that on the next leg, everyone will make it to the end too.”

There was a concern, however, about 11th Hour Racing Team ahead of Leg 3. The team needed to replace its foils due to damage, but the rules specify teams are only allowed to use one set of foils. A team may apply for permission to replace a foil that “suffers serious damage that cannot be repaired before a Leg start”. This permission was granted, allowing the team to continue in the race.

Leg 3 of the race from Cape Town to Itajaí, Brazil, which began on 26 February, takes the fleet on a monstrous 12,750nm Southern Ocean passage three-quarters of the way around the bottom of the world.