Clipper Race: GREAT Britain confirmed Rio to Cape Town winner

(October 25, 2015; Race 2, Day 18) – The time has passed for either LMAX Exchange or Qingdao to claim a podium position in Race 2 of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

With both boats racing on elapsed time, they needed to finish within 86 hours and 10 minutes of the first three teams over the line to finish above them in the placings, and that time passed at 0812 UTC this morning.

This means GREAT Britain is confirmed as the race winner with Derry~Londonderry~Doire in second and Garmin third.

With 210 nautical miles to go for LMAX Exchange, and Qingdao in Stealth Mode, it is going to be a tight finish between the two. It is estimated LMAX Exchange will finish at around 0800 UTC (1000 local) on 26 October, and Qingdao at approximately 1200UTC (1400 local) tomorrow, meaning they are anticipated to finish in 9th and 10th respectively.

Simon Rowell, the Clipper Race Meteorologist, described the conditions in the final approach to Cape Town.

“A weak front should be over Qingdao around now, and once it’s passed they should get building south easterly winds. LMAX Exchange will probably see the wind back towards the south east as well, and both of them will then be in roughly the same wind for the final section in. LMAX Exchange will be hard upwind, Qingdao reaching in off the wind – but whether this better angle will be enough to claw back the miles remains to be seen.”

Igor Gotlibovych, Skipper of Qingdao said: “Sailing is not always about fastest speed from A to B. Most readers realize that our route choices are based on picking the more favourable weather – in the next days as well as in the long term.

“The forecasts are notoriously uncertain, and progress is affected by many factors apart from wind strength, and sailing fast towards our destination for a day only to slow down to a pedestrian pace for the next two has to be weighed against sailing a longer route and making little progress at first in anticipation of better winds in a different part of the ocean in the days to follow.

“But now we are finally in fairly steady winds, pointing at Cape Town, with just over a day of sailing left. See you in Cape Town soon!” he added.

For ETAs to Cape Town, click here.

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Report by event media.

Background: The 40,000 mile Clipper 2015-16 Round the World Yacht Race began in London, UK on August 30 for the fleet of twelve identical Tony Castro designed Clipper 70s. The series is divided into 16 individual races, with the team with the best cumulative score winning the Clipper Race Trophy. Each team is led by a professional skipper with an all-amateur crew.

The second leg started October 7 and takes the fleet 3387 nm from Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town, South Africa. The fleet is due into Cape Town between October 21 and 25 and will be berthed at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront until October 31.

The ports along the race route are Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Cape Town, South Africa; Albany, Sydney, Hobart and Airlie Beach, Australia; Da Nang, Vietnam; Qingdao, China; Seattle, USA; Panama; New York, USA; Derry-Londonderry, Ireland; and Den Helder, Netherlands before returning to London by late July.