Race Report 2: Good Progress Overnight

Vessels which crossed the

2016 made good progress overnight. 

At

the time of publishing this report, five vessels have already passed waypoint

one off Ushant situated 115 miles down the race course.

Ocean Spirit of Moray (UK) has headed the fleet

for most of the race on the water but the mighty Mir from Russia has recently drawn level with her and is set to

take the lead with Dar Mlodziezy

(Poland) following closely behind.

The

majority of the fleet has now crossed the Start Line leaving just 11 vessels to

cross by 20:00 GMT/UTC tonight (Thursday 14 July)  to make the extended designated Start Gate. The

race placings on corrected time (the leaders on ‘handicap’) will start to be

announced once the Start Gate has closed.

The

north westerly winds are forecast to remain until tomorrow morning when they

are likely to back to a less favourable south westerly direction and go

lighter, particularly for the vessels still in the English Channel.

Paul

Bishop, Race Director, Sail Training International said, äóìThose vessels that

will be clear of waypoint one off Ushant later today are likely to benefit from

stronger north easterly winds and make a faster passage across the Bay of

Biscay. This race could be a classic case of the ‘rich getting richer’ as those

vessels out in front stretch their lead over the next couple of days.äó

Photo: Mir (Russia), Class A, crossing the Start Line of Race 1, The Tall Ships Races 2016.