Antoine Magre's Mach 50 Palanad 4 has become the new projected leader for IRC Overall in the RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race, overturning the on-water advantage held by Johnny Vincent's Volvo 70 Pace as the fleet turns south from Muckle Flugga.
At 1100 BST on Saturday, the seventh day of the 1,805 nautical mile marathon, Pace had just 204 miles remaining and was expected to reach Cowes in the early hours of Sunday for monohull line honours. However, corrected time projections now show Palanad approximately 6 hours 8 minutes ahead of Pace for the overall prize, with Jens Kellinghusen's Ker 56 Varuna 6 a further 10 hours behind Pace in third among the IRC Zero leaders.
The turnaround validates Magre's approach earlier in the race of staying "within reach for when the breeze comes in." Palanad was faster than Varuna on the leg from St Kilda to Muckle Flugga, recovering nearly an hour and a half to cut Varuna's advantage to 3 hours 36 minutes on the water. Under IRC, that performance has now propelled the French boat into projected overall leadership.
Pace had dominated the northerly leg, with Boat Captain Anthony Haines describing the run to Muckle Flugga as "25 knots of boat speed, wet, noisy and physical." The Volvo 70 covered the sector from St Kilda in just over 18 hours, extending her advantage over Varuna to almost 18 hours. But the big boat's rating now works against her as the smaller, lighter Palanad capitalises on favourable projections.
The figures remain projections rather than results. Palanad and Varuna face considerably more distance and different weather and tidal conditions on their way to Cowes, and the overall winner could still emerge from further back in the fleet.
In IRC One, Sam and Andrew Hall's Lombard 46 Pata Negra leads the class projections and remains in the wider overall equation, despite carrying out sail repairs at sea. The double-handed JPK 1180 Frida holds second, with Nick Edmonds' J/45 Stickleback third.
IRC Two has developed into the closest corrected-time battle, with Ian Hoddle and Willow Bland's double-handed Sky Business – GameOn leading by just 33 minutes from Bellino. Both boats are among the strongest challengers to the IRC Zero leaders for a high overall finish. Simon Bamford and Zeb Fellows' Kestrel is a further 1 hour 23 minutes back.
Three Class40s – Pierre LeBoucher's Penfret, Jon Tyrrel's Gambit and Greg Leonard's Swift – have rounded Muckle Flugga and are racing south with both division victory and the race record in play. Phil Sharp's 2018 Class40 record of 8 days, 4 hours, 14 minutes and 49 seconds must be broken by approximately 17:44 BST on Monday 17 August. All three leading boats are currently ahead of record pace.
Two boats have retired: the Class40 Tjoba and Graeme Lewis's maxi Venomous, both with boat issues. All crew are safe.
