GREAT Britain celebrates its 2nd place finish in Race 12 - The Spirit of Jamaica Chase

GREAT Britain fought back from a slow start to its Race 12 - Spirit of Jamaica Chase campaign following the Le Mans race start in Panama and climbed steadily up the leaderboard over the next three days, battling race leaders Henri Lloyd to an incredibly nail biting finish line. 

After pipping Henri Lloyd to the finish in similar cicumstances in the last two races, a fourth consecutive race win ended up just 31 seconds out of reach for GREAT Britain. However it celebrates its fifth consecutive podium finish in a row and its ninth podium overall. 

Commenting on his teams Race 12 efforts, skipper Simon Talbot remarked: "“As ever when Henri Lloyd and ourselves get together, it’s very tight racing. We pipped them round the rounding mark at the right hand corner of Eastern Jamaica. We got in there by 0.7 of a mile so we led them all the way down the coast. They were to be fair to them chopping away slightly so by the time we got to the last turn, we both gybed in. They went a little further in than us and got a slightly better wind band and started to pull ahead. By the time we got our next gybe in we were pretty much neck and neck and the fight went on from then and we just couldn’t get it back.

"We came second by 31 seconds after a day of some of the most intense racing we’ve had for a very long time. Henri Lloyd are our nemesis so yea, we’ll have to try harder on the way to New York.

"We made a very deliberate decision early on in this race. East was the right side of the track to be on. Henri Lloyd in truth, great sailing. They managed to get some east in their course if you look at their tack relative to the rest of the pack, they were sailing in a group of about eight boats and they broke off to about ten miles east and it was just enough for them. East was always going to win.

"Often in this game as we’ve seen before, you have to be prepared to go right to the last to win and we were unlucky to win. Ten minutes after race start we turned right while everyone else was going north and that was a losing tack which was always going to put us right the way down the board. I said to all the guys on board that it was an all or nothing strategy. We always play a very brave strategy and its paid off here. It could have easily been a first but it ended up as a second and that’s still fantastic and another pennant to add to our collection."

For the latest finish times and Race 12 fleet progress see the Race Viewer HERE