Oakley Marsh closes in on Cowes, hours from home

Palanad 4, with New Zealand's Oakley Marsh aboard, has 28 nautical miles left to sail into Cowes, with RORC's own tracker putting her finish somewhere around early afternoon on Sunday. Both of New Zealand's sailors in the 2026 Round Britain and Ireland Race will be off the water within hours of each other, Stu Bannatyne having already finished aboard Pace on Sunday morning, Marsh now closing the same 1,805 nautical mile course from the other direction.

Pace, carrying Bannatyne from New Zealand, crossed the line first, in an elapsed time of 6 days, 14 hours and 47 minutes, and on current numbers looks to have taken the race outright on IRC corrected time as well as line honours. That result isn't official. RORC won't confirm final placings until the whole fleet is home, and a lot can still move on corrected time while boats are still finishing. Worth treating it as the likely outcome rather than the result for now.

Marsh's own race isn't over yet, and it's had more twists in it than Bannatyne's. Palanad 4 lost real time to a wind hole and foul tide at Muckle Flugga earlier in the week, at one point sailing backwards, and has spent the days since clawing into a lead that, as of Friday, was measured in minutes rather than hours. With Pace already finished, that margin has settled into something closer to half a day, and on current projections Palanad 4 looks set for a top three finish on IRC, provisional until she's actually crossed the line and RORC has done the sums.

Jens Kellinghusen's Ker 56 Varuna 6 is also close, 15 nautical miles from the finish at last report against Palanad 4's 28, and both boats are showing 9.4 knots on the tracker. On paper that favours Varuna 6 for the water, but there's real distance between them still and plenty of Solent left for that to change. Either way, Varuna 6 rates lower under IRC and isn't shaping up to be in the podium conversation regardless of which boat crosses first.

For Marsh, 28, this has been his first fully crewed offshore result at this level, racing against crews with considerably more sea miles behind them, as part of Antoine Magre's eight person crew aboard Palanad 4. A likely top three finish on IRC overall, for a boat that spent part of the race sailing backwards through a wind hole, is worth waiting to see confirmed rather than calling early. Once Marsh is in, both of New Zealand's sailors in this fleet will be home, one having likely won the race outright, the other crewing a boat that's likely finished inside the top three, both still waiting on RORC to make it official.

Positions from YB Tracking, 17 August 2026, 11:15-11:20 BST. All placings provisional until confirmed by RORC once the fleet has finished.