Race 8 Day 4: Points mean prizes after Scoring Gate triumph

It’s been an eventful 24 hours for the 12 teams competing in the Clipper 2013-14 Race. With valuable points up for grabs at the compulsory Scoring Gate, each team has pulled out all the stops in a bid to get ahead of the tightly packed fleet.

Derry~Londonderry~Doire was the first entry to cross the compulsory Adel Scoring Gate at 23:30UTC securing 3 points. OneDLL were second across the line at 01:19:39UTC and secured 2 points further extending its lead in the overall race, while Old Pulteney claimed the final point up for grabs just over half an hour behind the Dutch entry.

The all-important point moves Old Pulteney in joint eighth place along with Jamaica Get All Right. Skipper Patrick van der Zijden describes how close his team came to challenging for 2 points while Invest Africa and Switzerland chased the Scottish entry.

“We battled hard with our rival OneDLL and sometimes came very near to them, near enough to read the text on the sail. Then a wind change would pull them away from us and we had to do the fight all over again, still we find them six and half miles in front of us and we are on charge to real them in.

“Also Invest Africa and Switzerland gave us a hard time which meant we had to stay on our guard and maintain our position.”

In other news GREAT Britain successfully rendezvoused with Team Garmin who were carrying on board spare parts which would allow the UK team to repair its water maker. GREAT Britain suspended racing for 24 minutes in order to collect the part.  They have now returned to the position they suspended in and restarted racing. Skipper Simon Talbot explains the brief but all important exchange.

“This was excellent news as by the time we had had this conversation, we were no more than half a mile apart and in very light wind, which meant that we could briefly suspend racing, motor over to them, transfer the pump across and then motor back to where we suspended racing to resume racing, all in the space of a little under half hour, without even causing Team Garmin to suspend racing, which was an excellent result all round.”

With Mission Performance making excellent progress clocking up a reported ‘280 miles in the last 24 hours’ and Invest Africa completing no less than eight sail changes since passing the Scoring Gate, Race 8 is gearing up to be one of the most exciting and challenging so far in the 16 race series. To keep an eye on the fleets progress and to view the Official Race Viewer click here

To read all the skipper reports click here