Tight finish

United by the Ocean wins inaugural Ocean Race Atlantic by under nine minutes over 11th Hour Racing.

Photography by The Ocean Race

11 September 2026

Paul Meilhat’s United by the Ocean has claimed victory in the inaugural The Ocean Race Atlantic, beating Francesca Clapcich’s 11th Hour Racing by less than nine minutes after a thrilling transatlantic battle.

The French-flagged United by the Ocean crossed the finish line off Lorient, France, after seven days, 23 hours, 39 minutes and 11 seconds of racing, completing a dramatic final duel in which the two leading IMOCA teams repeatedly traded the advantage.

11th Hour Racing finished just eight minutes and 56 seconds later, an extraordinarily small margin after a transatlantic race that had subjected the six-boat fleet to everything from high-speed sailing in big seas to light and variable winds approaching the French coast.

United by the Ocean leads 11th Hour Racing during the closing stages of The Ocean Race Atlantic.

Paul Meilhat and the United by the Ocean crew with their 2026 The Ocean Race Atlantic winners’ flag.

Francesca Clapcich’s 11th Hour Racing approaches the finish at Lorient, just minutes behind United by the Ocean.

Kojiro Shiraishi and the DMG MORI Global One crew celebrate their third-place finish in Lorient.

Team Malizia celebrates fourth place after a challenging Atlantic crossing that included damage to the boat’s port foil control system.

The closing stages were a sharp contrast to the earlier Atlantic conditions, when the 60-foot foiling IMOCA yachts rode the edge of an east-moving low-pressure system, at times exceeding 30 knots.

By the final hours, the leaders were racing in around 10 knots of breeze and flat seas.

Battle to Lorient

11th Hour Racing had taken the lead from Kojiro Shiraishi’s DMG MORI Global One on the final morning after choosing a more southerly route overnight.

Meilhat and his crew soon passed the Japanese entry as well, setting up a bow-to-bow contest with Clapcich’s team over the final miles.

Little separated the two boats as their courses converged approaching the finish north of Lorient’s Île de Groix.

Meilhat’s more northerly position ultimately paid off in the light, variable conditions, allowing United by the Ocean to establish a one-nautical-mile advantage and hold it to the finish.

“The boat is not the latest [design],” Meilhat said after the finish. “It is fast, but we had some bad moments because it is not really fast in the big waves.”

However, the former Biotherm proved potent as the conditions moderated.

We know that in medium and light wind on flat water it is really, really fast,” Meilhat said. “We are a good team with this boat and that is working well.”

The victory follows Meilhat’s success with the same IMOCA, then racing as Biotherm, in The Ocean Race Europe in 2025.

The victorious United by the Ocean crew after completing the transatlantic race from New York to Lorient.

The United by the Ocean crew celebrates after winning the inaugural The Ocean Race Atlantic.

Team Malizia approaches Lorient to finish fourth in the inaugural The Ocean Race Atlantic.

DMG MORI Global One skipper Kojiro Shiraishi acknowledges the welcome after finishing third.

11th Hour Racing in the foreground with eventual winner United by the Ocean close behind during the final battle off Lorient.

Eight minutes after an Atlantic crossing

For Clapcich and the 11th Hour Racing crew, finishing less than nine minutes behind after racing across the Atlantic was bittersweet.

“It was quite epic,” Clapcich said. “When you get so close to winning the race you want to fricken win it, right?”

She said the closeness of the racing was also what made the event special.

Doing a transat like that of 3,000 miles and ending up just a few minutes apart is a dream. It’s why we go racing, we want to race other teams.”

Behind the leading pair, DMG MORI Global One secured third place after holding off a late charge from Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia.

Shiraishi’s crew finished in eight days and 40 seconds, 22 minutes and 29 seconds behind the winner.

Team Malizia crossed five minutes later to take fourth, an impressive recovery after racing much of the Atlantic with damage to its port foil control system.

Crew member Cole Brauer said the team had continued pushing despite the problem.

“We pushed every inch of the way,” she said. “From the moment we found out about the foil rake situation we never released the hammer.”

At the time of the leading finishers’ arrival, Oliver Heer’s Embrace the Challenge was fifth and Conrad Colman’s MSIG Europe sixth, with both boats still racing towards Lorient.

The inaugural The Ocean Race Atlantic connected New York and Lorient in a fully crewed transatlantic contest for the IMOCA fleet. The event also introduced mandatory 50-50 gender-balanced crews.

theoceanrace.com