Johnny Vincent's Volvo 70 Pace crossed the Royal Yacht Squadron finish line in Cowes at 04:17:31 BST on Sunday 16 August to win Monohull Line Honours in the 2026 RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race.
The Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed former Volvo Ocean Race winner completed the 1,805-nautical-mile course in 6 days, 14 hours, 47 minutes and 31 seconds, though the YB tracker recorded 2,113 nautical miles actually sailed. The elapsed time fell well outside the 2014 race record set by Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, but Vincent's crew still delivered a commanding performance in the 50th anniversary edition of the event.
Pace's fastest miles came off the west coast of Ireland and towards Muckle Flugga, where the crew logged a 486-nautical-mile 24-hour run with boat speeds touching 26 and 27 knots. Navigator Jules Salter, who won the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race aboard Ericsson 4, described the conditions that allowed the former Groupama 4 to stretch her legs. "You have to let it go and give it the right wind angles and conditions," Salter said. "The crew were incredibly sharp at getting the right sails up and down."
The final quarter presented a stark contrast. Past Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, Sussex and Hampshire, the crew negotiated traffic separation schemes, oil and gas infrastructure, wind farms and exclusion zones in darkness, facing an intense series of never-ending gybes before favourable tide carried them through the Solent.
Vincent, whose previous longest offshore passage was Gibraltar to Southampton, framed the race as "four distinct chapters joined into one extraordinary book" — from familiar Fastnet waters, through the North Atlantic to Muckle Flugga, which sits further north than Cape Horn is south, and finally the obstructed North Sea approach to Dover.
Pace currently leads IRC Overall on corrected time, though the result remains provisional. Antoine Magre's Mach 50 Palanad 4 must complete the course before the overall winner is confirmed.
Vincent's crew included watch captain Stu Bannatyne, the four-time round-the-world winner making his debut in this race.
