News

There is no change at the front after day 22. JJ continues to extend his lead over Karukera and QBE Insurance Challenger. However, Pendovey Swift were one of 5 crews that topped 50nm yesterday, and in doing so jumped 2 places up the leader board to position 16 and extend the gap between themselves and their fire fighting counterparts on the Spirit of MA to 6 places and 80nm.

The weather is starting to close in on the fleet as an area of low pressure moves towards them. Early reports suggest that the adverse conditions may affect crews for a week with Westerly winds measuring up to 30 knots hampering progress. Many crews, especially the solo’s, are likely to use their para anchors to help get through these tough conditions and prevent posting negative distances towards the finish.

Some crews have tried to travel further south to miss the worst of these conditions, most notably the crew of Mission Atlantic who are now south of the fleet by 1 degree (60 nautical miles). While they may still be affected by the weather, they will be hoping to stay clear of the worst of it and continue their travel west, as they are now just 60nm north of the finish line.

Elsewhere, many crews have celebrated Christmas day. With the original start date of 06 December crews would have celebrated Christmas within 3 weeks of the start. As it turns out, many crews left the gifts, cards and presents sent from loved ones on their boat until the conclusion of the third week of the race – some even plugged in the festive lights for the occasion.

Finally, Britannia III are inching there way closer to the finish and are now inside the last 1100nm.