Team Malizia Finishes Fourth in Nail-Biting The Ocean Race Atlantic Sprint
by Team Malizia 10 Sep 10:47 PDT
10 September 2026
Malizia 4 crossing the finsih line in fourth place in The Ocean Race Atlantic © Marie Lefloch / Team Malizia
Team Malizia finished fourth in the inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic, marking the first race for the brand-new Malizia 4.
After eight days of relentless racing across the North Atlantic, Team Malizia crossed the finish line of The Ocean Race Atlantic in fourth place in Lorient, France, on Thursday 10 September 2026. In one of the closest offshore finishes in recent memory, four of the six IMOCA teams crossed the line within minutes of each other after more than 3,000 nautical miles of intense racing. Skipper Boris Herrmann (GER), alongside co-skippers Cole Brauer (USA), Justine Mettraux (SUI), Julien Villion (FRA), and onboard reporter Gauthier Lebec (FRA), completed the race aboard the new Malizia 4 in 8 days, 0 hours, 6 minutes and 40 seconds, arriving under sunny skies in light winds at 16:06 local time (14:06 UTC).
While fourth place was not the result Team Malizia had hoped for after showing front-running pace early in the race and remaining in the fight until a nail-biting finish, the race marked an outstanding first offshore test for Malizia 4. Facing the harshest conditions the brand-new IMOCA has encountered to date, the crew overcame several challenges and continued to push hard until the finish. Their determination and teamwork highlighted not only the immense potential of Malizia 4, but also the strength and resilience of the sailors onboard.
Skipper Boris Herrmann commented on crossing the finish line, "It was such a privilege to sail with this fantastic team, such a good spirit. The crew were amazing; they never thought of giving up, even when we had the foil issue. Now we are at the finish with all the front teams very close together. The Ocean Race Atlantic was a great regatta for us. Having four boats in sight along the coast today was pretty incredible. Until three minutes before the finish, we thought maybe we still had a chance. With a wind shift behind the Île de Groix, we thought we might be able to cross the line in third ahead of DMG Mori Global One. There was a nice two-boat battle between the Japanese boat and us throughout the second half of the day. So overall, it was a fantastic race. Thank you all for following the race and following us. Soon, we'll be back racing around the world."
The race got off to a great start for Team Malizia. First across the start line in New York, Malizia 4 quickly established herself as the leading boat in the fleet, at one point by 43 nautical miles. The defining moment came in the early hours of Saturday morning, when a collision with a small marine mammal or large fish damaged the port foil ram. After being forced to stop the boat to assess the damage, the crew, following instructions from the shore team, worked out an innovative fix that enabled them to continue racing but prevented them from adjusting the foil's rake for the remainder of the race.
The repair, combined with the reduced performance of the port foil, the following sea state and winds of up to 40 knots, cost Team Malizia valuable miles, dropping the team to fourth place and as far as 119 nautical miles behind the leading trio. Yet rather than accepting defeat, the crew immediately focused on the comeback, looking for every opportunity to regain ground as the conditions evolved.
The North Atlantic soon delivered exactly what had been forecast. The demanding conditions produced spectacular speeds while placing exceptional loads on the boat and significant physical demands on the crew onboard Malizia 4. Life onboard became a continuous balance between racing, problem-solving and strategy. Aside from the damage to the port foil ram, no major technical issues affected the boat, although, inevitably, a number of teething issues required attention as the brand-new IMOCA was pushed hard in such extreme conditions for the first time. Working tirelessly in brutal conditions, the sailors managed these challenges while continuing to race at the highest possible level.
Co-skipper and Malizia navigator Julien Villion commented: "The strategy in terms of weather was relatively easy as we stayed on the same tack for all the race. We had a small chance at the end to overtake the first boats where there was less wind, we knew it would be tricky but we held hope that we could catch up at this moment. It was a challenge with this handicapped foil, particularly on the tack we held for the whole race, it is hard to sail the boat slower when you know the full potential."
Co-skipper Justine Mettraux notes that "the boat has an incredible potential, we saw this in training but especially in the first days of this race. In the final hours of the race, we did not have so many choices. We just had to push and try to be as close as possible to third place, it did not fully pay off but we tried our best to get there."
Even through the toughest moments, the team's trademark spirit never disappeared. Between repair jobs and tactical decisions, there was still time for music, shared coffees and laughter, with Cole Brauer even introducing Boris Herrmann to an onboard skincare routine captured by onboard reporter Gauthier Lebec that quickly became a favourite with fans following the race.
Cole Brauer had clearly fought hard at the end and wanted to be third at the finish line. She said: "The team kept pushing as hard as possible, especially since the incident with the foil, we didn't ever give up. Normally I sail solo, so it was really interesting to solve issues as a crew. Having people to bounce ideas off made a huge difference, as did being able to rely on our amazing shore team who came up with incredible but complex fixes. The team on board really worked well together. Boris came up when it was blowing 40 knots and said, 'This is really scary.' But he went back downstairs and later told me, 'You're doing a good job,' before going back to sleep. That trust is so important when racing, knowing what each other needs and being able to support and adapt."
By Monday, Team Malizia's perseverance began to pay off: As lighter winds compressed the fleet, the crew steadily reduced the gap to the leaders, halving the deficit. Overnight into Tuesday, they seized another opportunity to improve performance by carrying out further work on the damaged foil system during a brief period of calmer conditions.
"We waited for the wind to drop and to have less sea state to be able to work on the foil case," said Boris Herrmann. "At the advice of the shore crew, we built bumpers to squeeze in front of the foil, so that it would be in a better position for us, with more rake. This way, at least, we got a little bit of rake, 1.6 degrees, so that's better than negative rake. The boat then had a really nice attitude, flying over the water with the bow up and a few knots more speed. The boat seemed happy and we were happy too."
The adjustment gave Malizia 4 renewed pace, allowing the crew to continue closing on the leaders and take part in an exceptionally close finish all the way to Lorient. The race was ultimately won by United By The Ocean, followed by 11th hour Racing and DMG Mori Global One, with Malizia 4 crossing the finish line just 5 minutes later after eight days of all-out racing. The team did, however, leave The Ocean Race Atlantic with one title to celebrate. Team Malizia claimed overall victory in the event's new Super Sprint competition, topping the leaderboard of the daily 20-minute sprint challenges held during the race's live broadcasts.
More importantly, the crossing confirmed what the team had hoped for from Malizia 4: the new IMOCA showed the speed to lead the fleet and the resilience to keep fighting at the sharp end despite being pushed in one of the closest and toughest transatlantic races in the past years. "The boat is incredibly fast upwind and when she is flying she is faster than everyone else", concluded Boris Herrmann. "After we hit something we had harder times as we were unable to rake our foil which meant we could not go as fast as we would have liked. I wrote to the architect Antoine Koch and told him that I did the best fifteen minutes of steering a boat ever in my life, it just feels incredible, the power of flying, it was the most incredible experience of my sailing life."
After a few days in the race village in Lorient, Team Malizia will enter a short but busy refit and analyse the past event to prepare for the Route du Rhum, where Boris Herrmann will take on his first solo race aboard Malizia 4.
Team Malizia's A Race We Must Win - Climate Action Now! mission which combines sailing, science, education and partnerships is only possible due to the strong and long-lasting commitment from its six main partners: the Yacht Club de Monaco, EFG International, Zurich Group Germany, Hapag-Lloyd, Schütz, and KPMG Germany. These partners band behind Team Malizia to support its campaign, each of them working towards projects in their own field to innovate around climate solutions.