It’s difficult to imagine a tighter finish! Malizia 4 came in 4th just five minutes off the podium after eight days of racing and over 3,000 nautical miles at sea. The brand new IMOCA of Team Malizia founded by Yacht Club de Monaco Vice-President Pierre Casiraghi was making its debut in offshore racing, a debut that served a dual-purpose as it was also the inaugural firs edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic. Despite damage to a foil during the race, the crew led by the German skipper, a YCM member, managed to stay in contention throughout the event.
More than 3,000 nautical miles separated New York from Lorient, Brittany. It was a hectic crossing for the six competing IMOCAs and crews who were racing neck and neck for nigh-on eight days. The North Atlantic sprint took a heavy toll on the boats. As the first to cross the starting line, Malizia 4 quickly took the lead, even enjoying the albeit fleeting luxury of leading the fleet by 43 nautical miles.
Their dominance proved short-lived when on Saturday morning they collided with a small mammal or large fish that damaged the port foil’s ram. Despite this setback which prevented them from adjusting the foil’s rake for the remainder of the race, Malizia 4 finished just five minutes off the podium. However it was a tight-run finish to secure 4th place with four of the six boats competing crossing the line within 30 minutes of each other.
The crew on Malizia 4, comprising Boris Herrmann, Cole Brauer, Justine Mettraux, Julien Villion and onboard reporter Gauthier Lebec, crossed the finish line off the coast of Morbihan in a time of 8 days 0 hours 6 minutes 40 seconds. Although the final ranking was not what they had hoped for, this first race proved an invaluable first offshore test for the IMOCA which had only left the shipyard earlier this summer.
“Seeing four boats in sight along the coast today was pretty incredible. Right up until three minutes before the finish, we thought maybe we still had a chance. With a wind shift behind the Île de Groix, we thought we might be able to cross the line in third place ahead of DMG Mori Global One. There was a great battle between the Japanese boat and us throughout the second half of the day. All in all, it was a fantastic race,” said Boris Herrmann at the finish.
The North Atlantic more than lived up to its reputation, allowing the crew to push the brand new IMOCA to its limits for the first time.
The focus now is on a short refit while the crew analyses the race in preparation for the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe (starts 1st November 2026), when Boris Herrmann takes on his first solo race aboard Malizia 4.
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