News

Another great day for the fleet, with nearly 800nm made good – an average of nearly 30nm per crew. At some point today, the fleet will have rowed the equivalent of the race distance between them.

Yet again, when viewing the weather page the importance of boat position is vital. Throughout today the crews to the north of the fleet may well experience South Westerly winds, while the crews in the south of the fleet may have the opposite, North Easterly. This demonstrates the importance of boat position, and as stated yesterday, it really is a tactical battle now – it is no good trying to take the early advantage west when the winds may pick up and push you in the other direction.

As it stands QBE Insurance Challenger have made great progress overnight and this morning and now lead both the fleet and the pairs class by 12nm. Vivaldi lead Mission Atlantic in the fours class by 28nm and Charlie Pitcher continues to lead Dave Brooks and Peter Van Kets in the solo class by 39 and 53nm respectively.

The 3 crews of Peter Van Kets, Heritage Explorer and Vision of Cornwall are in a great position. They have continued to make great progress south where the prevailing winds are stronger and more predictable and will almost certainly not be caught out by the testing conditions to the north of the fleet.

Meanwhile, the crew of Britannia III completed 64nm yesterday and at 0500 hours this morning had 2324nm to the finish.