Paul Meilhat’s United by the Ocean crossed the finish line off Lorient at 13:39 local time on Thursday, winning the first edition of the Ocean Race Atlantic after a 3,300-nautical-mile sprint across the North Atlantic that came down to minutes rather than miles.
The French IMOCA team held off Francesca Clapcich’s 11th Hour Racing, which crossed just eight minutes and 56 seconds later, one of the closest finishes in the class’s ocean-racing history. Samantha Davies brought DMG Mori Global One home third, just under 23 minutes back.
Boris Herrmann’s new Team Malizia had jumped to an early lead out of New York but lost ground after a port foil collision damaged the boat mid-race, eventually finishing fourth, 27 minutes and 29 seconds behind the winner.
Embrace the Challenge (Oliver Heer) and MSIG Europe (Conrad Colman) remained at sea as the leaders finished, with both boats expected in over the following days.
Six IMOCA teams started the race on 2 September from a virtual line 145 miles offshore of New York, a routing choice organizers said was meant to steer the fleet clear of whale and marine-mammal activity along the coast before they turned east for France.
