​Race 2, Day 15: South Atlantic High the final obstacle for remaining teams

The South Atlantic High is the last remaining major obstacle for the boats still at sea, with progress slow in the final approaches to the finish line off Cape Town, South Africa.

Unicef, PSP Logistics and Visit Seattle are all in good wind now, but must carefully monitor for the wind holes created by the shadow of Table Mountain the closer in they get. Da Nang-Viet Nam and IchorCoal are due to finish the race imminently.

PSP Logistics Skipper Max Stunell notes: “With the wind building, there is very little chance of catching the boats in front and little chance of being caught by the boats behind so we have reduced sail to make things a bit more comfortable. It seems Neptune is dishing out a goodbye from the South Atlantic for us all.”

Race 2: The Stormhoek Race to the Cape of Storms is being run on an elapsed time basis and the final positions and points will be awarded in ascending elapsed time. The shortest time wins. This is to account for the late start of LMAX Exchange and Qingdao after repairs following damage caused outside of racing during the stopover in Brazil. They started three days 11 hours and ten minutes after the rest of the fleet.

The most westerly yachts Qingdao and LMAX Exchange, are taking very different southerly and northerly routes in attempts to avoid the high pressure system.

LMAX Exchange Skipper Olivier Cardin says: “Yesterday was the beginning of our upwind section to Cape Town. There were two options to avoid the high pressure on the direct route the north and the south.

“We are on the north side and Qingdao is in the south. We were pushing on our side for a few days, unable to cross from one to the other.

Adding, Olivier says: “We expect today the beginning of the veering (wind coming more south) to be able to make a direct course to Cape Town.”

Igor Gotlibovych, Skipper of Qingdao, said: “Congratulations to all the teams finishing the race today - and especially GREAT Britain, Garmin and Derry~Londonderry~Doire Skippers and crews - it was a close race to the end and impressive to watch.

“The clock is now ticking for Qingdao and LMAX Exchange, and while we can't control the weather, we will do our best to not leave the rest of the fleet waiting for too long,” Igor added.

Last night, GREAT Britain crossed the finish line in the Stormhoek Race to the Cape of Storms to take Line Honours at 20.30 UTC (22.30 local time), followed just ten minutes later by Derry~Londonderry~Doire which found itself caught in the wind shadow created by Table Mountain.

Garmin crossed shortly after at 21.02 UTC and Mission Performance and Clipper Telemed+ are now also finished. The thrilling finishes continued this morning as Da Nang-Viet Nam fought to the end against IchorCoal, finishing just six mintues ahead.

The final elapsed race times for the finished yachts are:

GREAT Britain: - 338h 30m
Derry~Londonderry~Doire - 338h 40m
Garmin – 339h 02m
Mission Performance – 342h
ClipperTelemed+ - 347h 39 mins
Da Nang-Viet Nam – 351h 12 mins
IchorCoal – 351h 18 mins

To read more about the dramatic finish, click here.

To keep up to date with the ETAs for today, click here.