The race course was extended by approximately 60 nautical miles.
Congratulations Team Biotherm and Paul Meilhat Sailing Team.
They crossed the Portsmouth finish line Thursday 14 August at 09:48:30 UTC, after 3 days, 19 hours, 01 minute and 30 seconds of relentless racing from Kiel to Portsmouth.
Behind, in the battle for second place, things are hotting up with Paprec Arkéa and the chasing Team Malizia splitting away from each other.
At the finish Malizia’s locked in a decisive second place. For Paprec Arkéa, that momentary lapse cost them the place they’d protected all the way from Kiel, relegating them to third.
While the front three battled for podium positions, life was grindingly slow further down the order. Canada’s Be Water Positive team, sitting in fourth, spent much of the approach to Dover in thick fog with less than 30 metres’ visibility.
Canada would claim fourth place just over three hours behind the winning boat, while for Team Amaala, trailing the leaders by about 80 miles early in the afternoon, conditions have been even more frustrating.
With the first leg complete, nine points puts Biotherm in a strong early position.
Malizia’s late charge delivers six points for second, drawing them level with Paprec Arkéa, who added a single point from the Kiel scoring gate to their five for third. Canada Ocean Racing and Team Amaala will close out the leg later Thursday, collecting four and three points respectively.
The next leg kicks off on Sunday 17 August, when the fleet will head out of Portsmouth to race 1,400 nautical miles to Cartagena, Spain, with a 3-hour fly-by stopover in Matosinhos / Porto, Portugal.
Team Holcim PRB and Allagrande MAPEI Racing are continuing their repairs, hoping to join the rest of the fleet for the remainder of the competition.
