Race 2 Day 5: Jamaica Get All Right beats Qingdao across Scoring Gate

Jamaica Get All Right has crossed the Scoring Gate waypoints ahead of Qingdao, pipping it by just 14 minutes on their brave dash.

Skipper Pete Stirling and his crew crossed at 06:57UTC this morning and claim three points. Skipper Gareth Glover’s yacht Qingdao crossed at 07:11UTC and scores two points.

No other boat has gone for the gate as their tactics are taking them too far south to cross it, so Pete and Gareth’s strategy has paid off for now.

Eleventh placed Jamaica Get All Right and tenth placed Qingdao succeeded in getting the Scoring Gate points, but the question for them is will they be able to come down south below the South Atlantic High and make up the extra miles and so make the gate points worthwhile? 

Pete said: “Everyone is absolutely delighted. Despite its northerly position, we decided quite early on in the race to go for it.

“Qingdao had a shorter distance to run but we had a more favourable wind angle - the fight was on. In the end there were only 14 minutes separating the two teams and we came out victorious. Such is the nature of ocean yacht racing that at no time did we ever see each other but both teams were pushing hard to beat the other all the same.”

Gareth said he had to sail a little closer on the wind than he would have liked for the last hour.

“The wind dropped from 20 knots down to 10 knots and we took out the reefs and did the best speed to the line we could and just missed out. Well done to Jamaica Get All Right on the three points. The race is now on to Cape Town and we will have to see if the shorter but much slower route pays off, or the much longer and faster route.”

The middle group of the fleet is aiming to hook into the consistent winds from the north and west that will blow to the south of the South Atlantic high pressure system, and are well matched. 

GREAT Britain, Derry~Londonderry~Doire and Switzerland have been making a definite southwards move over the last 36 hours.

PSP Logistics is currently leading the fleet, closely followed by Team Garmin.

To see how the fleet is progressing, click here. To read all the skippers' reports, click here.