At noon local time on June 11, the 2023 World Ocean Race ended stage 6 in The Hague, Netherlands, with the 11-hour team winning the third consecutive stage championship, scoring five points while continuing to lead the overall standings with 33 points. The Holham PRB team crossed the line second, bringing the total points to 31 points; Malikia, on the other hand, finished third again with 27 points.
The 2023 World Ocean Race set sail on January 15, after nearly half a year of sailing, and after circling the world and returning to Europe, the pace of the race has become lighter. Stage 6 departed from Aarhus and flew over Kiel to The Hague, a total of 800 nautical miles – a race that is expected to be completed in less than three days compared to the thousands of nautical miles across the South and Atlantic Oceans, which made the IMOCA teams visibly jubilant. Coupled with the return of 6 teams in the VO65 class, the scene of 11 galleons sailing is still quite spectacular.
Of course, the fact that the distance of the race has become shorter does not mean that the excitement is reduced; Instead, the competition between the fleets intensified. The 11 Hours, Holshim PRB and Malikia, who have been competing against each other for six months, went hand in hand in Stage 6, approaching the finish line with the three boats not even more than 1 nautical mile apart, and in the description of the crew, we "shouted and heard each other".
The complex weather conditions near the finish line The Hague made the race suspense sharp. In the end, the captain of the 11 Hours team, Charlie Enright, conquered nature with courage, decisively led the team to turn south in front of the finish line, maintained a small advantage, and crossed the finish line first with a time of 2 days, 18 hours, 11 minutes and 52 seconds, and scored 5 points belonging to the champion, further expanding the point gap between himself and Holham PRB in the standings, and taking another solid step towards the championship.
Enright found the competition in the final moments incredible: "Given the situation, we could be overtaken by 20-30 nautical miles by our opponents, and I am very grateful to everyone on board for never giving up the fight, perseverance and always believing... Even though the other teams kept chasing us from behind, we still rushed to the front and won the championship. I would also like to congratulate my opponents, Holsime PRB, Malikia, Biotherm and Reinventing the Environment Europe, for a great game that deserves cheers from every team that finishes at The Hague. ”
Twelve minutes later, Holham PRB reached the end of Stage 6, and just over a minute later, Malikia finished the race – the top three teams arrived within 15 minutes.
The team that finished 4th in the IMOCA class in Stage 6 was Biotherm, who missed the reshaping environment of the previous stage due to a broken mast and the European team set sail again in 5th place.
As of the end of Stage 6, the IMOCA level points are as follows:
1. 11-hour team, 33 points;
2. Holshim-PRB, 31 points;
3. Malikia, 27 points;
4. Biotherm, 19 points;
5. Reinventing the Environment European Team, 2 points.
Next, let's focus on the restarted VO65 class competition. After winning the first stage, the Polish Windtalk team has won the stage again in the return battle and now has 12 points, giving them a relatively large lead in the overall standings. The second place in this stage was the Milpri Foundation, and the third place was led by Janssen Derong.
At present, it seems that the Polish Wind Talk team is at the top of the VO65 standings, and the second place Jansendrong leads the team by three points, but the latter team points are closer, and the finals in Genoa will be decisive.
The points for the VO65 level are as follows:
1. Polish Wind Talk Team, 12 points;
2, Janssen Derong led the team, 9 points;
3. Austria COSCO-Genoa, 7 points;
4. Milpuri Foundation Team, 5 points;
5. Long Live Mexico, 4 points;
6. Amber Team Two, 3 points.