ClipperTelemed+ wins Race 11 into New York

ClipperTelemed+ has won Race 11, The LMAX Exchange – RACE of THE AMERICAS, its first overall race win and second podium of the series.

The team, skippered by Matt Mitchell, crossed the finish line at 1442 UTC today, 9 June after overtaking Garmin in the night following a fraught battle between the two teams at the top of the leaderboard over the last four days.

ClipperTelemed+ beat Garmin to the finish of the race from Panama by around nine nautical miles. Garmin was also seeking its first overall race win, despite achieving five previous podiums already during the series so far, and finished in second place at 1535 UTC. Visit Seattle finished in third place at 1919 UTC, its first podium and best result of the series so far.

The team managed to hold off GREAT Britain in the final stages, which finished in fourth place at 2120 UTC. The fifth team to cross the finish line was LMAX Exchange at 2225 UTC but as reported on Day 7, they have incurred a 70 minute time penalty for entering the 12 mile exclusion zone around Haiti as was prohibited in the course instructions. As a result, Derry~Londonderry~Doire which crossed the line at 2241 UTC will take fifth place in the standings and LMAX Exchange will be sixth.

Da Nang - Viet Nam finished at 0127 UTC on 10 June to take seventh place in the LMAX Exchange - RACE of THE AMERICAS. Qingdao crossed the Race 11 finish line at 0432 UTC in eighth place, followed by Unicef at 0706 UTC in ninth, Mission Performance at 1011 UTC in tenth and PSP Logistics at 1152 UTC in eleventh.

Celebrating its race win, ClipperTelemed+ Skipper Matt Mitchell said: "The team are ecstatic about winning the LMAX Exchange - RACE of THE AMERICAS. We've been putting in 110% every minute of this race, coupled with a couple of good decisions along the way means that we have secured victory for the first time since leaving London. It's a very special moment for us and we couldn't be more pleased."

ClipperTelemed+ celebrated its first podium of the series when the team finished second into Panama on the previous race, Race 10, the PSP Logistics Panama Cup.

ClipperTelemed+ is due into Liberty Landing Marina, New Jersey, around 1800 local time tonight following the motorsail from the finish line to the marina.

Speaking about his team's performance on Race 11, which included an extra three Scoring Gate points, Garmin Skipper Ash Skett said his crew had sailed really well throughout this race.

"Although we are disappointed after once again finishing second after leading for the majority of the race, it is still a brilliant result and credit should be given to the team for staying focused and working hard.

"Congratulations to Matt and his ClipperTelemed+ team, they were pushing just as hard as we were and it was a very close finish in the end.

"For us, we can take solace in the fact that we took more points from this race than anyone else and there are still three races left to clinch that elusive race win," Ash added.

Huw Fernie, Skipper of Visit Seattle, said his team had worked hard for the result.

"We are all ecstatic to be crossing the line in third place. We had a huge boost from visiting our home port of Seattle and managed to keep that energy into the last race and this one too.

"It's been a very tough few days with boats getting closer and the weather throwing up everything from storms to flat calms and all of those with their own wind shifts, so it's been a tactical nightmare and a physical challenge. Now we are looking forward to a few days of normality in New York to recharge and recover and then we'll do it all again," Huw added.

Garmin is due into Liberty Landing between 1900 and 2000 tonight, local time, and Visit Seattle between 2300 and 0000.

For the latest ETAs for all teams, click here.