Clipper Round the World Yacht Race - Tensions reach boiling point

by Clipper Ventures on 28 Dec 2013 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2013-14 is on Day 2 of Race 6. With just four miles separating the top five Clipper Race teams as they pass the halfway mark, tensions are reaching summer boiling point. The race leader and fleet positions change frequently and podium positions are anything but predictable as Race 6 continues its thrilling progress.

In a dramatic morning’s racing, GREAT Britain (44th overall in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race) moved up four fleet positions to take over the Race 6 lead momentarily from Henri Lloyd (42nd overall) who has just now regained its front spot.

Derry~Londonderry~Doire (45th overall) has made terrific gains this morning and whilst writing this report has now moved into third (50th overall) with Old Pulteney (51st overall) who had led the fleet for the previous 36 hours, now fourth.

Providing his take on the race so far, Deputy Race Director Mark Light said: 'The fleet has left the sunshine shores of South East Australia and passed Cape Green, entering the notorious Bass Strait. This stretch of water can be ferocious, like a raging animal baring its teeth. At the moment it is more akin to a small kitten asleep in the sunshine, but the latest weather forecasts are showing things are going to change.

'Coming up to the approximately the halfway mark in this iconic race is where things will start to get very tactical as the yachts race to get across Bass Strait as quickly as possible to avoid the worst of the conditions and begin to negotiate the tricky East Tasmanian Coast while at the same time trying not to wake the weather animal asleep in the corner.

'The fleet is incredibly compact still so the next 36 hours are going to make for some very nail biting watching. Race Tracker viewers following at home will be glued to their screens I am sure.'

Clipper Race founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston who is racing aboard Clipper 68, CV10 is keeping up with the Clipper 70s which he helped to design, currently sitting in 55th place overall in approximately the middle of the Clipper Race fleet.

All positions reported as at the time of writing and are changing frequently. Check the Clipper Race tracker for the latest positions. It is updating every 10 minutes during this race.

POSITION / TEAM		DTL
1	Derry~Londonderry~Doire	0NM
2	GREAT Britain	22NM
3	One DLL	25NM
4	Old Pulteney	30NM
5	PSP Logistics	34NM
6	Team Garmin	26NM
7	Switzerland	25NM
8	Jamaica Get All Right	25NM
9	Qingdao	37NM
10	Henri Lloyd	51NM
11	Mission Performance	45NM
12	Invest Africa	54NM