Stage 7 takes Race Crew from Subic Bay, Philippines to Qingdao, China. This stage sees the fleet sail out of the Philippines and into the Bashi Channel and towards a cluster of Japanese Islands, before cutting into the East China Sea and on to the Yellow Sea for its final approach into Qingdao.

In the opening days of racing, the winds will be predominantly from the east, however once into the East China Sea a variety of different weather patterns could come at them. This looks to include a northerly breeze coming down from Siberia and the Korean peninsula, creating some difficult tactical upwind racing through a very congested, heavy sea, with short chop. There is also large amount of commercial traffic at this stage of the race which will require all of the crews to pay particular attention to their navigation screens.

After a tactically tricky race, the show stopping welcome put on by our long-standing partners in Qingdao will be greatly anticipated.