Palanad 4, with New Zealand's Oakley Marsh aboard, crossed the finish line at Cowes at 2:15am NZ time this morning (15:14 BST on Monday), closing out an eight day (over the line in 8 days, 1 hour, 44 minutes and 31 seconds) race provisionally second overall on IRC, behind Pace who had fellow Kiwi Stu Bannatyne aboard, which finished a day and a half earlier.
Both results stay provisional until RORC confirms them and the rest of the fleet is home, Pata Negra is currently third on corrected time and still has 359 nautical miles to sail, but the gap between the two boats carrying New Zealand's only sailors in the race is now a real result rather than a live estimate.
Jens Kellinghusen's Ker 56 Varuna 6 actually crossed the line first between the two, beating Palanad 4 by 1 hour 37 minutes on the water. It didn't matter for the overall placing. Varuna 6 rates lower under IRC than either Pace or Palanad 4, and finishes 11th overall on corrected time despite the head-to-head win.
Marsh described the final two days as some of the hardest of the race, not for the speed but for a string of wind holes that kept catching the boat out. A three hour shutdown on Sunday morning nearly cost Palanad 4 its shot at Varuna 6, until the sea breeze filled and closed the gap back to two nautical miles. Into the last night, the crew short tacked up the coast to dodge foul current, banking on a forecast thermal breeze at 2am to carry them home. It never arrived. "We found it did not," Marsh said, and Palanad 4 sat becalmed for three more hours while Varuna 6, sitting further offshore, escaped the same hole. Wind returned around 5am and the boat tacked up the final stretch of the south coast to the finish. By then, Marsh said, the crew was tired and "a little defeated from the last shutdown," though spirits picked up once everyone had finally slept and eaten.
There's no rest for Marsh himself. He's due to catch an 8:45pm ferry back to France this evening (local time), straight into his next race, which starts Sunday. "No rest for the wicked," he said.
| Pos | Boat | Status | Corrected time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pace | Finished, 16 Aug 04:17 | 10d 18h 21m 16s |
| 2 | Palanad 4 | Finished, 17 Aug 15:14 | 11d 13h 14m 41s |
| 3 | Pata Negra | 359 NM to finish, est. 19 Aug | ~11d 14h 42m (projected) |
IRC Overall standings from YB Tracking, position report 17 August 2026, 15:25 BST. Pace and Palanad 4 have finished; other times are provisional pending RORC confirmation of the full fleet.
