The race develops into a drag race on the fourth leg. With distances of over 500 nautical miles, all boats are now travelling in high-speed mode and are making up considerable distance towards the finish in Auckland. Only the New Zealand team on "Camper" fell back a little in the last position update to fourth place. Skipper Chris Nicholson provided the explanation for this this morning: "We tore our jib 2 and are currently travelling with a headsail that is too small." According to the Kiwis, this cost them around six nautical miles per position update.
The tear occurred when the lashing of the sail tore at the foot. "It slid up to half the height of the mast in a flash and tore through once in the centre," explains skipper Nicholson. After the rescue, two crew members immediately set to work on the repair, but it will take at least twelve hours. Here is the YouTube video of the repair
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Meanwhile, the big winner of the last 24 hours is Ken Read's "Puma". The team with the German Michael Müller on board had positioned itself far to the east of the field and was able to sail much faster than "Telefonica" far to the west thanks to more favourable wind angles. As a result, the boat with the octopus on its hull found itself in second place today. With 522.14 nautical miles in 24 hours, Read's team has so far been the fastest in the field.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
