Tony Bullimore and his crew on the 102ft catamaran Daedalus are on course for an afternoon finish at Doha to take second place in the Oryx Quest Round the World Race.

At 0545 GMT today, the British skipper and his crew were sailing at 8.7knots directly for the finish line with just 146 miles to run.

Chatting from the boat Bullimore said: ‘The winds have been exceedingly fickle overnight. We can be building speed one minute up to around 8knots then just as suddenly we run out of breeze altogether. All the guys are so keen to get to the finishing line, We are pushing as hard as we can.”

In the Gulf, the winds are generally stronger during the day than at night, so their big test is to get the job done before sundown. If not, then they could spend another agonising night waiting for the winds to return.

At their current speed, it could take a further 18 hours, but if the winds pick up during the day, then Daedalus and her crew are quite capable of halving this time.