Six-strong IMOCA fleet bids farewell to New York heading for the start to The Ocean Race Atlantic
by The Ocean Race Atlantic 1 Sep 20:12 BST
1 September 2026
The Ocean Race Atlantic - Speed Runs Day © Vincent Curutchet / The Ocean Race
The six international IMOCA crews competing in the inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic left New York Harbor today after a midday ceremonial start in front of the Statue of Liberty.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, at the Brooklyn Bridge Marina where the fleet has been based for the past five days, the four-person gender balanced crews and their on board reporters paraded down to their boats, before docking out one-by-one, each waved off by their shore crews and cheering fans.
The fleet of 60-foot foil-assisted high-performance racing yachts will now transit through a series of marine mammal exclusion zones off New York City at low speed on their way to the official start area located around 150 nautical miles offshore.
Here the crews will switch to race mode when the transatlantic sprint to Lorient, France is scheduled to officially get under way at 0600 Eastern Time (1200 CEST) on Wednesday, September 2 - although expected light conditions on the way to the start area may necessitate a short postponement.
With many of the crews racing in the transatlantic race also intending to take on the around-the-world edition of The Ocean Race starting in January 2027, the 3,000-nautical-mile passage through the North Atlantic will give the teams a valuable opportunity to test their open-ocean performance relative to their rivals.
As well as proven boats like Paul Meilhat and Mariana Lobato's United by the Ocean (which as Biotherm won The Ocean Race Europe 2025), Francesca Clapcich's 11th Hour Racing (the boat which raced around the world as Team Malizia in The Ocean Race around-the-world edition in 2022-23), and Oliver Heer's Embrace the Challenge (which as TeamWork - Team Snef was sailed to eighth place in the 2024-25 Vendée Globe by Swiss sailor Justine Mettraux), the fleet also features two brand-new boats in Boris Herrmann's Malizia 4 and Kojiro Shiraishi's DMG MORI GLOBAL. Meanwhile, MSIG Europe is an older-generation non-foiling design that - as MS Amlin - skipper Conrad Colman raced to 21st place in the 2024-25 Vendée Globe.
Despite having to deal with light conditions and potential thunderstorms on the way to the offshore start area, the forecast weather for the race itself suggests the crews could be in for a fast ride across the Atlantic. Just how fast depends largely on how well the sailors deal with a fast-moving low pressure system which looks set to travel eastwards with the fleet, bringing strong winds and fast-running conditions. Pre-race routing suggests that the leaders could take between six and nine days to reach the finish line off Lorient.
Team Malizia's Cole Brauer (USA) believed the first day might be the toughest part of the race, weatherwise.
"We are going to be dealing with the Gulf Stream, light winds - it's predicted to be pretty flukey and up and down - then deciding on whether you take the north route or the south route," she said. "But, once we get going, we have five days of bombing all the way down to France."
Those who take best advantage of this strong weather system could have a chance of breaking the race's 24-hour distance record of 641.13 nautical miles (1,187.39 km), set by Boris Herrmann's Team Malizia crew on Leg 5 of The Ocean Race 2023 from Newport, Rhode Island, to Aarhus, Denmark.
"We are ready. The technical team did an incredible job to get us ready to be on the start line," said Francesca Clapcich, skipper of the 11th Hour Racing boat. "Now we are looking forward to being back out there and the conditions are looking pretty awesome for getting to the other side of the pond pretty quickly. We are expecting a pretty fast race. Some pretty fast angles, reaching, so it could be record-breaking conditions for the race. Right now it's looking like six or seven days to get to Lorient. I hope the guys in the tech team can beat us to the other side."
Malizia 4 (GER) skipper Boris Herrmann said he was excited to finally get the chance to see how the team's new boat performs in its first competitive outing.
"Finally, we are getting to the action that we came for," he said. "We can't wait to start sailing and discover this new boat in conditions we have seen it sailing in before - and against competitors we have never seen before on the water."
The German skipper also said he and his crew appreciated the chance to start the race offshore 'away from the influence of the land'. "It's great that we get a chance to get into our zone on the way to the start so that when we get there we are already super-focused, although we will miss having the shore crew alongside us to give us a little smile and a wave from the rib."
Like Herrmann, Kojiro Shiraishi (JPN), skipper of DMG MORI GLOBAL, said he was very excited to discover the potential of his new boat. "It's the first race for our new boat and we are hoping to be able to test a lot of its characteristics during the Atlantic crossing," he said.
Paul Meilhat, skipper of United by the Ocean (FRA), said he and his team had enjoyed their week in New York in the build-up to the race. "But, now it is time to focus on the race," Meilhat said. "I think we are really lucky, because maybe we will have really nice weather to cross the Atlantic very fast. We have a new crew but we did the delivery trip together and that is good because the newcomers can learn about the boat, but also for the team spirit."
Oliver Heer, skipper of Embrace the Challenge (SUI), said it was a special opportunity to potentially race all the way across the North Atlantic on the back of one weather system. "Normally you get caught in a patch of light winds in between two systems, but this time it looks like we can get across with just one. That will make it rapid and I just can't wait to see all these boats going at 100 per cent."
Heer commented on how different full-crewed racing was to racing the boat alone as he has mostly done previously. "It's got its upsides as well as its complexities," he said. "Sailing as a team, performing in such a small space with five of us on the boat is quite a challenge. But we have assembled an amazing crew. Of the four sailors, I am the only one who has not competed in an edition of The Ocean Race and I just cannot wait to share the highs and lows of this race with the people around me."
Conrad Colman (NZL), skipper of MSIG Europe said he and his crew recognised that their non-foiling boat would probably not be able to ride the transatlantic storm all the way to Lorient.
"We have a very different boat and so we will be the first to fall off the front," he said. "That will make life more difficult for us, but we are still talking about some spectacular conditions that we cannot wait to get our teeth into. We may not set the overall speed record for the class, but we are chasing the overall speed record for the boat. We can't wait to get out there and get the boat whipped up to full speed. It's going to be fun."
This edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic is the most accessible ever, with live connections to the fleet each day for the OnBoard Live Show at 1700 CEST / 1500 UTC via www.theoceanrace.com and youtube @theoceanrace along with international broadcasters. Learn more here.