Almost as soon as Post 60 went out, the decision on the Sanya / Punta collision was published on the Clipper website. Sanya has been found in clear breach of the rules “On Opposite Tacks”. You’ll have to find an expert sailor to explain it to you, but as a consequence Sanya are disqualified from Race 4 and will have zero points. They can also not gain any points from the Scoring Gate (which they obviously wouldn’t anyway as the first three yachts will be through before Sanya and Punta have even left Cape Town) nor the Ocean Sprint.

Punta, on the other hand, has been given redress and awarded 9 points in the race, based on their performance to date in the first three races (including Scoring Gate, Ocean Sprint and final Race positions). They could also gain points from the Ocean Sprint if they are one of the three fastest times. We won’t know that for quite a while.

Once all repairs are finished they will race against each other to Fremantle, not against the rest of the fleet. There is an unique Clipper Race match racing trophy which will be presented to the winner of this two-boat race. This does seem odd to me, disqualify someone then say but you might win a special cup. If they require repairs to sails or equipment, the normal penalties will apply. They are expected to leave Cape Town by 29th November, based on the way the repairs are progressing. They had a practice sail on 24th November to get them all back in the swing of things. They should arrive in Fremantle just in time to join Leg 4, Race 5.

Back at Unicef, trundling towards Durban to drop off Andrew Toms and his suspect appendix. It had been thought they’d get there on Sunday 24th but it is today, Tuesday 26th, due to the winds not being very helpful. They can’t motor all the way as they’d not have enough fuel and they can’t medevac him until closer to shore. The poor chap only joined for this Leg so “The Race of Your Life” has gone terribly wrong for him. https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/skipper-report/unicef/race4-day8-team48

It’s painful looking at Race Viewer this race, what with John headed in the wrong direction, in addition to the two stuck at Cape Town. By the end of this week all three of them should be headed towards Fremantle but they’re not going to have much turn-around time before Race 5. I don’t know what happens to Unicef in terms of points either. Someone said they won’t get any redress, that only happens if they have to divert for the Skipper. That seems very unfair and could in theory encourage a crew member to downplay any illness.

The Race Committee can, “at their discretion”, award points they think are appropriate. The Rules say that time spent on any diversion will normally count as time spent racing and that redress is not awarded for medical evacuations. I guess this means Unicef will have only two or three points for coming near the end: we don’t know if the nine points awarded to Punta means they are in third place or if someone else will be third (that is, two boats receive nine points). All very confusing. Punta will not be in Fremantle in time for the prizegiving so I think they cannot be considered to have third place. We’ll find out on December 14th at the prizegiving.

Dare to Lead have had a freezer failure so all fresh food that they could not eat in time went overboard. Happy sharks! GoToBermuda’s generator broke down. Qingdao’s water maker (gives them fresh water) broke down. Nearly all the boats seem to be having to do major sail repairs. At least two have had problems with their wind instruments, meaning night time sailing is difficult. They are all putting safety before all-out racing. I’ve not heard anything from John, although he’s had a couple of mentions in the Skipper reports and crew diaries, so he’s still on board! George did another crew diary on 25th November which you can find here https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/crew-diary/qingdao/637

So at the moment this race is doom and gloom, and as London is cold and grey there’s not much cheer here. Well that’s not true, I’m having a busy and fun time. I’ll tell you about it soon.

The Scoring Gate results are in. Here we have good news. Qingdao 1st across (three points so a total of 51), Ha Long Bay (HLB) second (two points, not doubled as the Joker only applies to the main race, giving a total of 31) and Imagine Your Korea (IYK) third (one point to bring them up to 13). It was very close between IYK and Zhuhai for the last two days but then Zhuhai hit a wind hole and slowed down. The shot below from Race Viewer shows how close they were, with the blue line being the Scoring Gate. In fact, on Nick’s Skipper report he says Qingdao radio’d and asked if they had a problem as they seemed to have come to a complete stop. https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/skipper-report/zhuhai/race4-day9-team45

With the Ocean Sprint offering another three points and the Joker allowing HLB to get 22 if they win, it’s not guaranteed that Qingdao will be top of the pack in Fremantle, although they’ll have to be incredibly unlucky in the next fortnight. Stay tuned!