Race 5 Day 10: The fight for final points continues in Race 5 to Sydney, Australia

After a triumphant end to Race 5 yesterday which saw Henri Lloyd claim the line hours and 12 points, the remainder of the fleet remain focused and upbeat as the race to Sydney, Australia is far from over.

With Old Pulteney due to finish in the next few hours, the second half of the fleet is still in full racing mode, with its sights firmly on the competition. With Invest Africa and Team Garmin continuing to fight for ninth place, skipper of Team Garmin, Mark Burkes, summed up the competitive spirit on board as the remainder of the fleet hunt them down.

“For the last few days we have been stalking Invest Africa and our tussle for a place at the tail end of the fleet is no less fraught and a hard-one just because we won't be getting any silverware.”

 Simon Talbot, skipper of GREAT Britain which is currently in eleventh place also remains optimistic.

“We still have Invest Africa and Team Garmin within about 50 miles of us, so we still have a chance at a little last minute pursuit, but as the miles to Sydney decrease, our chance at catching and overtaking them diminishes - but that will not stop us trying.”

It was a challenging 24 hours for Mission Performance which experienced it’s very own ‘kitemare’ after the team tried to perform a kite drop swapping  from its lightweight kite, ‘Bruce’, in favour of the medium weight kite ‘Brian’. Skipper Matt Mitchell, describes the disastrous result.

“There was a resounding rip, and the whole middle section of ‘Bruce’ split wide open, causing the foot of the sail to go in the water. All hands (all ten) were called and we started to try and retrieve the bottom half of the kite, as well as pull down the top half which was still attached to the main section by the tape lines.”

PSP Logistics was the final entry to complete the Ocean Sprint yesterday; however it was all in vain as OneDLL’s impressive time of 18 hours 03 minutes could not be beaten. This means that in Race 5 OneDLL will be awarded a total of 13 points after claiming second place yesterday and 11 points and 2 points for the Ocean Sprint, placing them second overall on the leaderboard.

To read more on Mission Performance’s ‘Kitemare’ and the rest of the skipper reports click here. For the latest ETAs click here