Race 9.1 day 9: Skippers reflect on ‘hardest race of all’, Leg 5

The remaining yachts have all finished racing, with Switzerland, Henri Lloyd, Qingdao, Old Pulteney, Team Garmin, OneDLL, Jamaica Get All Right and PSP Logistics all motor sailing towards Qingdao after Race 9.1 finished.

OneDLL beat all expectations with a very fast finish in the closing stages of the shortened Race 9.1, knocking Mission Performance off its provisional podium position, beating its elapsed time by only one hour 26 minutes to come in third.

All results remain provisional and the official verified leaderboard for Race 9.1, and updated overall standings, will be published on Friday 14 March.

Gareth Glover, skipper of home port entry Qingdao, said his crew was disappointed but were now preparing for Leg 6 while they motor sailed. “The race to our home port is over and we didn't get the race result we were trying for but the crew worked hard in the weather we had which was fruity at times.

“After what seems a very long race from Singapore to Qingdao after the stop in Hong Kong, in the end it all came down to when you started the race and the luck of the weather on route with the front yachts getting a better angle on the wind further up the race course whist the rest of us were still beating.”

Jan Ridd, skipper of Team Garmin, said they have some big positives to take away from this race. "We have shown that we can sail as fast if not faster than the other boats in the fleet. Considering that a couple of yachts were well ahead of us in the Taiwan Strait who we have managed to pass and pull out a lead over, it proves that we have what it takes to be competitive.

"I just hope that I can stand the crew down for a least a couple of days to allow them to recover from what I consider to be the hardest leg of the whole round the world race."

For all estimated arrival times into Qingdao, click here.

The Race Office, in consultation with the PSP Logistics team, has proposed the yacht delays its start by 48 hours to Tuesday18 March to provide more time for adequate yacht and crew preparation prior to starting Race 10 across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. The team will race on an elapsed time basis to still be able to compete against the rest of the fleet. The remainder of the fleet will still start on the scheduled date of Sunday 16 March.

To read all the skipper reports click here.

For the Race Viewer, click here.