Race 9, Day 4: Wind increases with just three miles separating top four

The wind has built and there is some very close racing between the teams as they attempt to find the best angles to head north and towards the Scoring Gate.

Headsail changes have been carried out as the wind increased to around 25 knots and the crews beat upwind at a steep angle.

Old Pulteney is now leading the fleet, followed by Derry~Londonderry~Doire one mile behind and Henri Lloyd in third just three miles behind.

Old Pulteney skipper Patrick van der Zijden said: “Another day on a 35 degrees angle, and the wind kicked up even more this morning giving us a nice full 6 Beaufort wind to play with. It is day 4 of this race and the ‘Navigator’ (the nickname for our boat) is ploughing through the waves on the way to the Scoring Gate, in a straight line only 350 miles away, but the way we are beating upwind this will be more than 450 miles which means about two and half days. The fleet came back together last night and it is still very close racing.”

GREAT Britain, Mission Performance and PSP Logistics have chosen a more easterly course than the rest of the fleet. Skipper of Mission Performance Matt Mitchell explains the last 24 hours racing. “The fleet looks to be converging in earnest with those of us whom stayed further south making easterly progress to start making our gains on those that went north early. 

“The clock is also reading less than 2,000 miles to go which is great to see, though to give you an idea of the slog of upwind sailing we have in fact sailed around 800 miles to gain 450 miles towards the finish.”

To read all the skipper reports click here 

To track the fleet’s progress on the official Race Viewer click here