Out on the open Atlantic the leading pack of The Ocean Race Atlantic has settled into the pure joy of fast reaching, the kind of sailing that makes every mile feel earned and every decision count. With fewer than 500 nautical miles left of the 3,000-nautical-mile passage from New York to Lorient, the top four teams are counting down the final stretch in conditions that reward precision and nerve in equal measure. Earlier today Kojiro Shiraishi's DMG MORI Global One was hitting speeds close to 30 knots in southerly winds, skimming across flat water north of a high-pressure zone that continues its slow drift south-east. That early decision to hold the most southerly line in the leading group now looks inspired, delivering the optimum wind angle for a direct charge towards the French coast.
At 1200 UTC the Japanese entry held a 10-nautical-mile advantage over Francesca Clapcich's 11th Hour Racing, with Paul Meilhat's United by the Ocean another 13 miles further back and Boris Herrmann's Team Malizia, the northernmost of the front-runners, sitting 35 miles off the lead. The pressure of leading this brand-new event has not dampened spirits aboard the black-and-red flyer. Samantha Davies appeared relaxed in footage sent from the boat, smiling as she described the night's work. All is good on board. We have less than 500 miles to go and we are sending it fast with the J0. We have been doing that all night and it's fun. It's fun and it's fast and what is good is that we are still in the lead. But it is really really close, so we are going to have to push really hard and that is what we are doing right now.
Aboard United by the Ocean the mood matched the conditions. After days spent sealed below decks by a punishing sea state the four-person crew took turns on the helm, drinking in the fresh air and the clean horizon. Portuguese co-skipper Mariana Lobato captured the moment perfectly. Now it's windier and no more waves so champagne conditions. Everyone has been helming and it was nice to be able to see all the modes. In these conditions I think we can do better than the pilot because we can find the balance, anticipate and make sure we don't lose our apparent wind. As a sailor I am enjoying the day, the moment, the life. It's beautiful - the sky, the horizon - I feel free, liberty, and it is amazing to be on the ocean enjoying this privilege to be here.
Paul Meilhat summed up the tactical reality with characteristic clarity. It is not a control race, right now. It's about taking the best angle to the finish line. His teammate Benjamin Ferr agreed that four boats remain in contention with four different strategies still viable. The crews are focused less on covering one another and more on extracting every knot of performance from their foiling machines while the breeze remains favourable.
This inaugural Ocean Race Atlantic marks a fresh chapter in a competition whose roots stretch back more than half a century. The original Whitbread Round the World Race set sail from Portsmouth in 1973, evolving through the Volvo Ocean Race years into today's Ocean Race. The 2026 Atlantic edition is the first pure point-to-point transatlantic sprint in the event's history, contested exclusively by fully-crewed IMOCA 60s under a mandatory 50-50 gender balance rule that places two women and two men on every boat alongside an onboard reporter. Six teams lined up off New York on 1 September after a ceremonial parade past the Statue of Liberty, starting from a virtual line more than 100 miles offshore to protect marine mammals. The course follows the classic west-to-east track that has tested generations of ocean sailors, this time with modern foiling designs capable of sustained high speeds when the conditions align. DMG MORI Global One itself represents the latest leap in design thinking. Guillaume Verdier's radical hull, with its pronounced central bustle, was conceived to keep the boat more upright and reduce wetted surface, drawing inspiration from foiling multihull principles. Launched only weeks before the start, the Japanese campaign has already shown the boat's potential in the hands of Shiraishi, a two-time Vende Globe finisher, and a crew that includes the vastly experienced Samantha Davies and Nico Lunven. Team Malizia's brand-new Malizia 4, another 2026 launch, has displayed consistency throughout the Super Sprint series that ran alongside the main race, topping the table four times in eight attempts and securing overall series honours ahead of DMG MORI.
Oliver Heer's Embrace the Challenge and Conrad Colman's non-foiling MSIG Europe continue to sail more direct routes further south, avoiding the worst of any low-pressure systems. Colman remains upbeat after closing miles on the newer foilers. Over the past couple of days we have been chomping into the lead of the boats ahead. We are coming in with a new vein of breeze and that allowed us to take back a lot of miles on Embrace the Challenge. That's a 2020-generation foiler so in theory a lot faster than us but we have been matching them boat-for-boat. So on the whole things are looking good and crucially we are looking fast for the arrival, it looks like we are going to arrive in Lorient on Friday afternoon.
Lighter winds are forecast closer to the Brittany coast, raising the prospect of another compression among the leaders before the finish. Nico Lunven aboard the race leader sounded a note of caution. It will be close. The wind is dropping ahead of us so the fleet will compress again before the finish. We might be leading now, but it could all change. Current predictions place the first arrivals somewhere between 1200 and 1800 UTC on Thursday 10 September. Live coverage of the finish will be available through theoceanrace.com as the ETAs firm up.
Wednesday's final Super Sprint confirmed Team Malizia as series champions, with DMG MORI Global One second and Team Francesca Clapcich powered by 11th Hour Racing taking the remaining podium place. Meanwhile Ocean Live Park opened at La Base in Lorient with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Mayor Fabrice Loher, IMOCA President Antoine Mermod and Race Chairman Richard Brisius. The park runs daily until 13 September, offering family activities, ocean-health programmes, try-sailing sessions and evening concerts that will welcome the fleet home.
As the leading quartet drives towards the finish, the race has already delivered everything promised of a new classic: high-speed passages, tactical complexity, mixed crews performing at the highest level, and the raw beauty of the North Atlantic in full flow. The final hours will decide the order, yet the deeper story is already written in the spray and the miles a new generation of sailors and boats writing the next page of offshore history on a route that has tested the best for decades.
