Both Kiwis home but the Round Britain and Ireland race continues

Both of New Zealand's sailors in the 2026 Round Britain and Ireland Race are off the water, but the race itself is a long way from over. Twentry-seven boats are still out on the 1,805 nautical mile course as of Tuesday afternoon (NZ standard time), working through a week that's already produced a torn spinnaker, a broken outhaul and more than one becalmed night.

UK's Johnny Vincent's VO70, Pace, the boat Kiwi Stu Bannatyne crewed on finished first, coming across the line on 16 August at 7am – 6 days, 14 hours and 47 minutes after the race started – with Jens Kellinghusen's Ker 56 Varuna 6 finishing one-and-a-half days later.

Palanad 4 – the French-flagged Mach 50 3.50 on which New Zealander Oakley Marsh crewed with mates Antoine Magre, Erwann Le Mené, James Murphy, Jean-Philippe Saliou, Joss Creswell, and Pablo Santurde del Arco – crossed the line about two-and-a-half later again, provisionally second overall in the IRC division. Skipper, Sam Manuard designed the Mach 50, going on to sail her in the race that's now gone a long way to proving the boat he drew. The crew was welcomed ashore at Trinity Landing in Cowes before taking the boat round to Hamble.

Palanad 4's IRC runner-up spot isn't entirely locked in yet, either. Ian Hoddle and Willow Bland's Sky Business – Game On currently projects to finish third overall, and on paper the gap back to Palanad 4 is only around five hours, with 462 nautical miles still to sail. Although we think Palanad 4 is likely to retain that second IRC spot, it's not a given, so we're crossing our fingers for that end result. Wouldn't it be great to have Kiwi sailors come 1st and 2nd in IRC overall!

The rest of the fleet has had its own week. Bellino, UK's Rob Craigie's Sunfast 3600 2.20 Fin 6, tore the head of her A0 spinnaker rounding Muckle Flugga and Out Stack, and spent what the crew called "a hard night" repairing it with a North Sails kit before re-hoisting a sail that had, by their account, been filling the saloon in the meantime.

Jetpack, the JPK 10.10 skipped by UK's Mark Brown has held first in IRC Three since leaving the Solent, rounding Muckle Flugga at 3am with a care package waiting for the crew at the halfway mark, and still had 572 nautical miles to run as of Tuesday morning.

Maggie Adamson's mother tried to have a Sunday roast delivered to the Sunfast 36002.20 Fin6 Tigris mid-race, an offer the crew turned down in favour of pot noodles.

Adamson is from Shetland herself, and the boat had passed close to her home waters only days before.

Further south, the J 45 2.30 Stickleback's crew filmed themselves passing oil rigs off Scotland's east coast, a reminder that the fleet still has wind farms, shipping lanes and exclusion zones to pick through before anyone reaches Cowes.

IRC Overall standings from YB Tracking, position report 18 August 2026, 03:00 BST. Pace and Palanad 4 have finished; other times are provisional pending RORC confirmation of the full fleet.