United by the Ocean claims victory in inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic in historically close finish
Paul Meilhat’s United by the Ocean (FRA) has won the inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic after a neck-and-neck battle along the French coast today with Francesca Clapcich’s second-placed 11th Hour Racing (USA), during which the two teams traded the narrowest of leads back and forth for several hours.
In contrast to the breakneck pace of the racing out in the open Atlantic Ocean earlier in the race that saw the six-boat fleet of 60-foot foiling IMOCA yachts riding the front edge of an easterly-moving low pressure storm system for several days in bumpy seas and at speeds over 30 knots – the final hours of the race were played out in around 10 knots of breeze and on a flat sea.
