The RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race enters its seventh day with six boats now round Muckle Flugga, the most northerly point of the 1,805nm course.
While Johnny Vincent’s Volvo 70 Pace is powering south towards Cowes and Monohull Line Honours, the battle for the biggest prize of all has taken another twist: Antoine Magre’s Palanad 4 is the new projected leader for IRC Overall.
The separation at the front of the IRC fleet really began to open after Bull Rock. Pace rounded with Varuna 1 hour 34 minutes behind and Palanad 5 hours 35 minutes astern. By St Kilda, Pace had stretched the gap to 7 hours 40 minutes over Varuna and 12 hours 45 minutes over Palanad.
The Volvo 70 covered the sector from St Kilda in just over 18 hours, extending her advantage over Varuna to almost 18 hours. Palanad was faster than Varuna on the same leg and recovered nearly an hour and a half; at Muckle Flugga, Varuna remained second on the water but her advantage over Palanad had been cut to 3 hours 36 minutes.
At Muckle Flugga, Pace still held the advantage, but the latest VMG-based projections at 11:00 BST on Day 7 have Palanad approximately 6 hours 8 minutes ahead of Pace for IRC Overall. Varuna is currently projected around 10 hours behind Pace, putting her third among the IRC Zero leaders.
The figures remain projections rather than results. Pace has just over 200 miles remaining, while Palanad and Varuna have considerably further to race.
Palanad now leads the projected contest for IRC Overall, Pata Negra heads IRC One, GameOn and Bellino are separated by minutes in IRC Two, Jetpack is under pressure in IRC Three, and three Class40s are racing south with both division victory and a race record at stake.
There is still a huge amount to play for in the RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race.
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