As Grant Dalton and his Club Med crew draw close to a decision on whether to make a 48 hour pit-stop at Wellington, Tony Bullimore’s British entry Team Legato clocked up a further 400 miles over the past 24 hours in the chase to catch up with her nearest rival Warta Polpharma.

At 1500 today, the gap between the two boats had closed too 1,382 miles, compared to 2,014 miles last Monday. At the time of the last satellite pass, Team Legato was speeding along at 21 knots, while the Poles aboard Warta Polpharma were struggling to better 8knots.

Tony Bullimore reports, ‘We are surfing along at 20-25 knots in perfect conditions. It is fantastic. The boat is behaving beautifully and morale within the crew is sky high. If we can take this much distance out of the Poles in four days, where could we be this time next week?’

To add to the battle, there are some question marks over the condition of Warta Polpharma, which inexplicably stopped in her tracks on Tuesday and may well have sustained some damage. Obviously, with Team Legato shortening the gap, her Polish crew don’t want to let on any secrets at this time.

Grant Dalton seems to be keeping his options open for a short pit stop in Wellington, New Zealand, some time tomorrow or Saturday, while the second placed Innovation Explorer is almost certainly planning to stop in order to replace torn sails and repair a broken daggerboard.

Latest positions:

1. Club Med 0 miles

2. Innovation Explorer 823miles

3. Team Adventure 4,378 miles

4. Warta Polpharma 4,943miles

5. Team Legato 6,324 miles

6. PlayStation – Retired

Photo Credit: Dave Giles/Fujifilm/PPL