"Jangada has come quite close to us again. They are somewhere back there, only four nautical miles away from us," had Lisa Berger warned shortly before the finish. In the light-winded final sprint of the fourth stage in Globe40, the battle for fourth place on the section from Sydney to Valparaiso became even tighter.
Little wind, lots of excitement off Valparaiso
As in the battle for the stage win, the between Team Belgium Ocean Racing - Curium and the "Crédit Mutuel" crew, which came from behind, was so close After the race had ended with both teams being crowned winners, Lisa Berger and Jade Edwards-Leaney now had to fight for their fourth place in the final sprint, as the chasing teams came on strong.
Just under three hours before "Wilson", "Barco Brasil" had already crossed the finish line in third place ahead of Valparaiso on Wednesday. A clip shows, how José Guilherme Caldaz and Luiz Bolina rushed towards Valparaiso. In the battle for the places behind the fastest pointed bow boat on this leg, the last of almost 7,000 Pacific miles sailed in the light winds off the Chilean coast on 28 January was once again exciting.
After 27 days, 11 hours and 58 seconds, Lisa Berger and Jade Edwards-Leaney crossed the finish line in fourth place. They mastered the 6922.27 nautical miles sailed over ground at an average speed of 10.5 knots. Richard Palmer and Rupert Holmes on "Jangada" took just 35 minutes and 17 seconds longer to complete the entire Pacific crossing of almost 7000 nautical miles.
Globe40 stage finale: three boats within an hour
Another 20 minutes later, Melodie Schaffer and Colin Campbell followed with "Whiskey Jack", meaning that three boats had once again crossed the finish line of a mammoth Globe40 leg in less than an hour. Now only the crew on the French "Free Dom" is still battling towards the stage finish in Valparaiso.
Thibaut Lefévère and Nicolas Guibal had to return to Sydney for rudder repairs soon after the start of the leg following a collision with an unknown object. Since their restart on 15 January, they have been sailing after the field with all their determination. Their main goal is to arrive in Valparaiso in time for the start of Globe40 leg five on 18 February.
And this is what today's results mean for the intermediate classification in the round the world race: Team Belgium Ocean Racing leads the fleet with 13.50 points ahead of "Crédit Mutuel" (15.50 points). The two scow-bug boats sail on in a dimension of its own. The pointed bow boats cannot usually jeopardise the modern racers with their round bows.
Major changes in the Globe40 classification
Behind the top duo, however, there is now a lot going on in the standings ahead of the remaining two stages from Valparaiso via Recife (Brazil) and back to the start and finish harbour of Lorient. This is partly due to the sporting results of the fourth stage, but also the cancellation of Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink on stage three and the now missed fourth stage as well as the "Sydney repair loop" of "Free Dom".
The teams Next Generation Boating Around the World (55 points with two missed stage classifications) and "Free Dom" (probably 52 points), which were still in fourth and fifth place after three stages, have now slipped back. While the Belgians, French and - new - the Brazilians (25.50 points) occupy the podium places, Lisa Berger and Jade Edwards-Leaney with Wilson (46 points) even move up two places and are fourth overall after four legs. However, "Free Dom" will still be able to hold on to fifth place for the time being when she arrives at the finish line. The results are provisional and have yet to be officially confirmed.
When the four boats crossed the finish line on Wednesday, the Brazilians still had almost 4,000 nautical miles ahead of them in the middle of the South Pacific on course for Point Nemo. Your progress can be tracked here. It is painful to observe the new interim result for Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink from afar without the chance to intervene. After breaking their boomerang on leg three, the youngest crew in the field had to abandon the current and two further legs and thus also their dream of a complete circumnavigation.
Burke and Fink drop back without a chance to play
Burke and Fink will not return to the Globe40 until the sixth and final stage after the repairs on La Réunion and the transfer of the German Class40 to Recife. They want to bring the race to a worthy conclusion, attack the two favourites for victory from Belgium and France one last time at the end and aim for a conciliatory podium result from the final stage start on 29 March off Recife.
Click here for the Globe40 interim results. Although the results were not updated immediately after the most recent finishes, the new ranking is easy to work out for yourself based on the known stage results and coefficient 3. The two winning teams each receive three points, while third-placed "Barco Brasil" (ranked 3 x 3) receive nine points. Lisa Berger and her Welsh co-skipper Jade Edwards-Leaney take twelve points from this leg. Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink's account will be debited with 24 (8 x 3) additional points. As a result, Team Next Generation drops back to sixth place for the time being.
