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An incredibly close finish to the hottest Leg of the Clipper Race from the Whitsundays, Australia, to debut Host Port of Sanya, China, saw all eleven Clipper Race teams finish the 4,300 nautical mile course within 21 hours.

After 23 days of racing, PSP Logistics, Qingdao, Dare To Lead, Sanya Serenity Coast, Unicef and Visit Seattle crossed the finish line during the night in China just outside Sanya’s Serenity Marina between 12:41 UTC and 20:38 UTC on Thursday 22nd February. Liverpool 2018, Nasdaq, Garmin, HotelPlanner.com and GREAT Britain arrived in daylight between 02:41 UTC and 09:07 UTC on Friday 23rd February.

PSP Logistics overtook Qingdao just days from finishing to claim first place, crossing the finish line at 12:41UTC, and although Qingdao was the second team to cross the line at 18:17:39 UTC, Dare To Lead’s redress of 1 hour 24 minutes means it took second place, with a revised finish time of 16.53 UTC. The redress was for going to the assistance of Liverpool 2018 during the fourth day of racing to transfer a spare part for the team’s onboard watermaker

The Forever Tropical Paradise Race, the seventh of thirteen individual races, was a tough, hot endurance test that included a Doldrums Corridor, Equator crossing, King Neptune Ceremonies, a Scoring Gate and an Elliot Brown Ocean Sprint.

Flying the flag for China: Sanya Ambassador Kobe arrives into his home port.

On arrival into Sanya, the organising committee put on a spectacular welcome for the podium teams and its team entry, Sanya Serenity Coast. The top placed teams were greeted by a lion dance procession which leading to the Clipper Race Arrivals Stage for a performance. Afterwards, the teams where presented with their pennants by members of the Sanya delegation and a Champagne spray finished off the celebrations.

Speaking about the race, which was also first win for PSP Logistics, Skipper Matt Michell said: “It’s awesome. It was pretty tense with every schedule when we got the position reports in and each time it did, we thought we had dodged a bullet. We dodged the final bullet this morning and we’re really pleased we managed to hold the others off.”

Speaking at the Serenity Coast Arrival Press Conference, Sanya Serenity Coast Skipper Wendy Tuck thanked Vice Mayor, Xu Zhenling, for the warm welcome and spoke about the tough race to the team home port. After Sir Robin announced that Sanya Serenity Coast will still lead the overall Clipper 2017-18 Race leaderboard, she said: “We don’t have to be the strongest, we need to be the smartest”

With the full fleet now in Sanya’s Serenity Marina, the only five gold anchor platinum status marina in Asia, a whole host of celebrations, tourist events and cultural experienced are planned for the coming week.

Kicking off the events is a tourism day tomorrow, Sunday 25 February, some 40 crew members from 8 different nationalities will be attending a special day of sightseeing to experience the very best of tropical Sanya; Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone and the Binlang Valley.

The Race Village will also open, and alongside sampling the finest local delicacies and enjoying the Tsingtao Beer Zone, locals, tourists and crew members can try their hands in the Lego building centre, test their sailing skills with model yacht races, show their fearless side with the Zorb Ball game area and take part in cosplay. The Clipper Race Dome will also open and visitors can experience what life is like on board, via virtual reality goggles, or try their skills at the Marlow Rope Knot Tying Station.

Team Brunel emerged from Stealth Mode overnight as the furthest east in the fleet, and by the 1300 UTC position report on Saturday, Bouwe Bekking’s team was in second place as measured on distance to finish, despite being the northernmost boat in the fleet.

“Yesterday, it was obvious we were falling off the pressure the three leading boats had,” explained skipper Bouwe Bekking. “You can keep following them, but then you know you’re going to keep losing.

“The models we had were telling us to sail the direct course towards the north cape of New Zealand. That’s why we went in Stealth Mode… Fortunately for us, the others kept reaching (out to the west), so we didn’t lose any distance to the mark to these boats. That was the good thing about going into Stealth.”

It’s clear now that Brunel will be pushing the direct route to New Zealand. They will be sailing far fewer miles than the other leading group who are committed to the west, hoping to find more wind to compensate for the additional distance sailed.

“The key goal for us is to get south,” said Scallywag navigator Libby Greenhalgh. “The forecast is still uncertain, but there is definitely pressure to the south and the more we can hook into that the closer we’ll get to New Zealand before the forecast becomes very unclear.

“It’s one of those situations where you kind of have to pick your side and try to win your side. For us, if we can catch AkzoNobel and beat them to win our side, then the worst case scenario is a fourth and best case you win the leg.”

Behind and taking a middle option on the East/West axis is Dongfeng and MAPFRE, the top two boats on the overall leaderboard, now racing in unfamiliar territory at the back of the fleet.

But all hope is not lost, as they claw their way back in terms of distance to the leader, which is now down to just 37 miles.

“The weather forecast keeps changing quite a lot in the files we receive during the day,” said MAPFRE skipper Xabi Fernández. “We have nearly 1000 nautical miles to go so we will keep our hope until the very end.

“The crew is having as much rest as possible and getting ready for any opportunity that may come at the end of the race. Our particular race with Dongfeng keeps being exhausting and we all know it is going to be that way the whole way to Auckland. Let’s see how it finishes. Hopefully we can have Brunel join the battle too.”

Scallywag’s Greenhalgh agrees it could be a fantastic finish: “This is going to be another spic finish with the teams exceptionally close and possibly a full foam up coming in. Will be awesome to watch as fingers crossed we arrive in daylight.”

In Auckland, the Volvo Ocean Race Event Village opened on Saturday. Everything is ready, awaiting the stars of the show.

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