And then there were none… The last IMOCA crossed the finish line early this morning in 34th position, and it was none other than my old boat captain and co-skipper, Ollie Heer!
Ollie’s race was far from easy; having been involved in a collision on the first night with Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG MORI Global One), he had to return to St Malo for repairs. Three and a half days later, thanks to some incredible work from not only his team; but the DMG MORI team too, Ollie was able to leave again and head for Guadeloupe.
As the collision was not Ollie’s fault, the International Jury awarded him 84 hours of redress to be taken off his race time at the end. His corrected finish time of 17 days, 22 minutes and 55 seconds moves him up to 32nd position and puts him inside the time limit required to qualify for the Vendée Globe – exactly Ollie’s goal when he set off.
Finishing this race will have been a huge boost for Ollie and his team. You learn the most in the hardest moments, and to have achieved what he has is an incredible thing. I’ve been anxiously following him the past few days, trying to figure out if he will get in before the time limit, and it looks like he managed to do so fairly comfortably. Congratulations Ollie; have a well-deserved rum and take some time to relax!