Two Kiwis split by 17 minutes atop Round Britain and Ireland Race fleet

Seventeen minutes. That is the gap between Oakley Marsh's Palanad 4 and Stu Bannatyne's Pace on IRC corrected time, after more than ten days and upward of 1,600 nautical miles of the RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race. New Zealand's only two representatives in the 33 boat fleet currently sit first and second overall, and as of the last position report, Wednesday evening BST, it is Marsh's boat in front.

It has not always been this close. Earlier in the week, Pace held an IRC overall lead of roughly half a day, with Palanad 4 sitting third in both the line honours and IRC projections at that point. Palanad 4 has clawed back something like twelve hours of corrected time since, and did it in a single 24 hour period in which she covered 249 nautical miles, more than either Pace or Jens Kellinghusen's Ker 56 Varuna 6, currently third overall. Palanad 4 rates at 1.431 under IRC, Pace at 1.627, the difference in those handicaps is doing real work now that the two boats' elapsed times have started to converge on the water as well as on paper.

Line honours and the overall win are two different prizes, and right now they're splitting apart. Pace is roughly a day from the finish, on course to be first boat home comfortably. Palanad 4 and Varuna 6 are still closer to a week out, locked into their own contest, 502 nautical miles to go for both at last report, their elapsed times four seconds apart after ten and a half days of sailing. If Palanad 4 holds her handicap edge over that remaining distance, and there is a lot of North Sea and Channel left for that lead to grow or vanish, she wins the race outright on IRC while finishing behind Pace across the line. Double handed boats have pulled off that exact result before in this race, winning overall without being first home. This time it would be a fully crewed scow doing it.

Marsh gave a sense of that form from the deck itself, on a call from the west coast of Ireland partway through the race. "Currently blasting downwind," he said. "It's wet, it's wild, speed's often above 20 knots, lots of water over the deck, sea state can be bumpy, and yeah, it's a bit crazy." At that point Palanad 4 was still working through the fleet rather than leading it. "We're trying to play catch up on the slightly bigger and faster boats in front of us," Marsh said, "and yeah, just playing a bit of cat and mouse really." One of those boats was Pace. Within a day of that call, the race's own competitors' blog had Palanad 4 rounding Muckle Flugga and posting under the caption "Palanad smokin'."

Line Honours Monohull standings from YB Tracking, last position report 14 August 2026, 23:30 BST. Provisional, subject to confirmation on the official race website.

Bannatyne's angle on this is just as good. He has won the Volvo Ocean Race four times, yet this is his first crack at the Round Britain and Ireland Race specifically, sailing as watch captain aboard Johnny Vincent's Pace. Right now a sailor with three decades of round the world racing behind him is trailing a 28 year old Figaro sailor who was runner up in Le Défi Paprec by 18 seconds earlier this season, and who only joined Palanad 4's eight person crew for this campaign.

Nothing here is decided. IRC results stay provisional until the fleet is home and RORC confirms them, and Palanad 4 still has a week of sailing left to defend that lead, through waters that have undone plenty of overall leaders in this race before. For now, though, it's two New Zealanders, on two different boats, separated by 17 minutes, at the top of the IRC fleet.

IRC Overall standings from YB Tracking, last position report 14 August 2026, 23:30 BST. Provisional, subject to confirmation on the official race website.