Jamaica Lightning Bolt strikes again in Clipper 09-10

Jamaica Lightning Bolt has added another second place finish to their rapidly growing list of honours in the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race. The team, named after the fastest man on earth, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, crossed the finish line at 1322 GMT, just under two hours after winner and overall race leader Spirit of Australia.

The result means the Jamaican team will move up into second place overall, just 0.7 points ahead of Team Finland.

The fight for second place in Race 8 went down to the wire as three teams finished within minutes of each other. Just 12 minutes separated Jamaica Lighting Bolt and Qingdao who took third place and Team Finland, eight minutes behind the Chinese team in fourth place.

Skipper of the Jamaican entry, Pete Stirling, said, “Without a doubt this must have been the closest finish in any race of Clipper 09-10. With the extremely light and fickle winds there was a great deal of concentration and a certain amount of luck required to keep yourself in contention.

“Since early yesterday morning we have had Team Finland in sight first behind us, then ahead of us and then finally behind us again this morning as we approached the finish line. With them threatening to take our third place position off us we hoisted the lightweight spinnaker and dropped the Yankee 1 at midnight last night. Up to this point the weather had been a bit touch and go with several dark clouds around us threatening to bring rain and a lot more wind.

“The spinnaker made all the difference and over the course of the next eight hours we managed to move ahead of Team Finland and pull out a two mile lead over them by the time we crossed the finish line. In the end there was probably less than 15 miles the top four boats as they crossed the line. Real nail biting drama!”

Spirit of Australia crossed the finish line at 1140 GMT today, victorious skipper Brendan Hall commenting, "This race has been an emotional rollercoaster. We've had great highs and depressing lows. It's hard to be in the lead for so long knowing we can only slide backwards and the other boats are all gunning for us. To have triumphed in the end and taken the maximum 13 points is a testament to the hard work determination and persistence of this fine crew. Qingdao, Jamaica Lightning Bolt and Team Finland are crews of the highest calibre so to have beaten them is a great achievement."

Given the unpredictable nature of the winds on this course and the need for the yachts to transit the Panama Canal within a given window, the Sailing Instructions for this race include provision for several finish lines. With very light or no winds forecast for the coming days, the Race Committee decided on Thursday to take that option and set the finish line off Cabo Blanco.

During this stage the teams have enjoyed vastly different sailing conditions to those they endured on the transpacific race from Qingdao to San Francisco. After a buffeting as they left San Francisco, spinnakers have been flying, temperatures have been rising and the crews have been enjoying some fast downwind sailing conditions, interspersed with periods of flat calm and fierce tropical squalls. Rankings on the leader board have changed at almost every schedule for the rest of the teams as they were affected by localised weather conditions.

The results are provisional until all the skippers have handed in their Race Declarations on arrival in Panama. Jamaica Lightning Bolt is expected to arrive in Flamenco Marina, Panama, on Monday 10 May, from where she and the other yachts will transit the Panama Canal, one of the great wonders of modern engineering, before the start of Race 9, a short, upwind sprint to the team’s home port of Port Antonio on the beautiful north coast of Jamaica.