With the finish of Hong Kong and Cape Town Clippers, all eight Clipper yachts are now safely moored in the Galapagos islands. The wind picked up giving the remaining five boats a fast passage so that everyone finished before the ETA of Sunday, 5 January.

The racing in the second group remained tight all the way to the finish line. In spite of some scares in the changing conditions, in the end the order remained unchanged. Glasgow Clipper held onto their fourth place but were made to work extremely hard for it with Bristol a mere 16 minutes behind Rupert Parkhouse, ‘the Birthday Boy’.

Bristol Clipper may have been chasing Glasgow, but having the Liverpudlians finishing just 7 minutes astern of you does not make for a relaxing run in.

Hong Kong and Cape Town were also both very much in touch and came home two hours later.

On reflection, it was a fascinating race with two solutions to a common problem. Those that went east certainly got it right and took 132 hours for the 900-mile race. Those that chose to go the direct route down the rhum line took 39 hours longer, a massive 30% difference. The interesting aspect was that the boats in the two groups were extremely close despite the vagaries of the conditions.

Until the Declaration Forms are submitted the results for Race 4 remain provisional. As they now stand, Jersey Clipper has taken a positive lead over London. Then three points behind we have 5 boats within four and a half points of each other. This marks the first quarter of the race and the only thing certain is that we will, as normal, see massive swings in fortune in the races to come.

Provisional Overall Order after Race 4 with points:

1 Jersey (Simon Rowell) 28

2 London (Ed Green) 23

3 New York (Sam Fuller) 20

4 Bristol (Richard Butler) 19

5 Hong Kong (Justin Taylor) 16

6 Glasgow (Rupert Parkhouse) 16

7 Liverpool (Adam Kyffin) 15.5

8 Cape Town (Roger Steven-Jennings) 5