Race 15 Day 5: Close match racing in closing stages of the OneDLL Cup

Following this morning’s tight finish to Race 15, today’s skipper reports reveal the close and competitive racing taking place in the closing stages of the OneDLL Cup.

Earlier this morning skipper of Henri Lloyd, Eric Holden described the tense match racing during the closing stages of the 800 mile race to the Netherlands, “It is my hope that by the time you read this we will be nearly across the finish line and that we managed to stay ahead of the pack lead by Old Pulteney that are threatening to chase us down. It has been a tense day of racing. We had a nice6 mile lead this morning coming out of the gale, but that quickly dropped to three miles as the wind dropped for us first.”

Skipper of Switzerland, Vicky Ellis was also embroiled in a tight battle with the Northern Irish entry, Derry~Londonderry~Doire this morning as just a few miles separated the teams and an all-important podium position:

“Derry~Londonderry~Doire is on our tail (still!) And we have been dodging shipping lanes and oil rigs all night. Each time we duck or dive they seemed to get a little closer.  My nerves are all shot to pieces so I promise I will write more when we are tied up alongside about what has been a fantastic race with a fantastic team through some truly beautiful waters.  Until then I need to get back to my pacing circuit between the deck and the navigation station.  We have a podium place at stake here!  Go Switzerland!

Meanwhile, it’ll be a fight to the finish line for Qingdao and Invest Africa as just two miles now separates the teams in Race 15. Skipper of Invest Africa, Rich Gould explains: “The final blog of the penultimate race!  The last 24 hours have been tough, not necessarily physically tough, but mentally tough.

“We had put in some good miles and worked really hard to establish a good couple of miles on Qingdao throughout the night as we ran shy with the kite up, but as the wind backed and we found ourselves back close hauled on the wind we started to lose miles on them.  No matter what we did we seemed to be constantly missing a couple of point of a knot.”

This morning Henri Lloyd won its fifth race in the 16 race series finishing at 09:41 local time, 07:41 UTC and is now making its way into the dock at Willemsoord in Den Helder, a naval port in North Holland. Old Pulteney and Switzerland  took second and third place respectively with a finishing time of 09:57:11 local time, 07:57:11 UTC and 10:36 local time, 08:36 UTC. For the latest finishing results in Race 15, click here 

To read all the skipper reports click here