Race 5 Day 3: Close match racing in Scoring Gate victory

It was a day of tense race viewing as OneDLL stormed to victory claiming maximum points in the Scoring Gate, with Derry~Londonderry~Doire and Henri Lloyd claiming second and third respectively in one of the tightest battles yet.

OneDLL were the first yacht entry across the Scoring Gate yesterday at 13:03 UTC claiming the maximum 3 points. The fight for second place was hotly contested with just seven minutes separating Derry~Londonderry~Doire at 16:20 UTC and Henri Lloyd who claimed third place with a time of 16:27UTC and 2,1 points respectively.

Old Pulteney came in fourth place, narrowly missing out on winning any points, but with less than 10 miles separating the Scottish team and Henri Lloyd, Old Pulteney is putting in one of its strongest performances in the race so far.

Skipper of Henri Lloyd Eric Holden described the close match racing of the last 24 hours, “About 20 miles out the wind died off altogether and it was a tense several hours to get around the gate. Derry~Londonderry~Doire had a great final run in and beat us to the Scoring Gate by a few boat lengths. Well done to the team for getting in ahead of us in what will become a memorable battle into the Southern Ocean.”

With a large front expected to hit the fleet in the coming days with gusts of up to 60 knots anticipated, the fleet is already preparing for the tough conditions. Skipper of Mission Performance, Matt Mitchell describes how his team is ready for the challenge.

“With a large front on its way it looks like it will be an exciting dip down here again with the wind expected to be in the 60 knot region again by the Sunday 8 December. The crew are raring for the challenge and now we know what the boats are capable of our minds are put a little more at ease.”

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