Race 4 Day 11: Scoring Gate Results are in!
29 November 2023
It's Day 11 of Race 4: Marlow Roaring Forties Challenge, and the Scoring Gate Results are in!
Could it be said that Dare To Lead stealthed to perfection?
Skipper Ryan Gibson and the Dare To Lead Race Crew timed the use of its stealth card to perfection. With a little over 200 nautical miles until the Scoring Gate, Dare To Lead strategically vanished from third position, only to reappear just as they slid through the gate taking the three points for first place.
Image: Dare To Lead cross the Scoring Gate in first place
Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam followed shortly after to take two points and Our Isles and Oceans took the last point for third through the Scoring Gate.
Race leaders Zhuhai bailed out of the Scoring Gate battle a few days ago, choosing to remain further south along with a few others where the distance to Australia is slightly shorter and the breeze was a bit stronger. The decision allowed the team to maintain its lead, albeit by just eight nautical miles over Dare To Lead and eleven on Ha long Bay, Viet Nam in third currently.
But while we were all obsessed with who would take the Scoring Gate, the teams have been negotiating a strong low-pressure system which Race Crew member Florian Engert on board Washington, DC summed up as “It’s exactly what we signed up for.”
Image: Roaring Forties start to roar. Captured on board Washington, DC
Although 270nm now separates the front of the fleet from Yacht Club Punta del Este at the back, all the teams are reporting the same conditions, with thirty-plus knots of wind from the stern and a sea state of 6, or according to the Douglas Sea Scale, very rough with waves of two to three meters.
The plan for everyone now will be to try and ride the coattails of this system for as long as possible, before falling off the back into the lighter winds behind the system. But that’s not going to last long, because following a few days behind is an even more exciting weather system which the skippers will already be making their moves to best navigate.
Keep up with all the latest action on the Race Viewer.
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