This is Part 2 a multi-part article. See Part 1.
TUE 2 JUN 2026 78 HOUR UPDATE
Thirteen skippers are into their fourth night on the Tasman. Tuesday passed without drama — a change after the rescues and retirements of the first 48 hours. Oceans Tribute leads the fleet at 441 NM to the finish, projected to arrive at Southport on 4 June. Vixen Racing sits second, the monohull sandwiched between the two multihulls. Only Oceans Tribute, Vixen Racing and Electron have crossed the halfway mark. Sarau and Pacman are expected to join them tonight.
Sharon Ferris-Choat checked in from Vixen Racing in fine form: “Here comes the moon!” Shortly after: “I have just tacked onto starboard heading towards Lord Howe Island at the moment on a nice lift!”
Roaring Forty has had the standout day in the fleet, opening a 77 NM gap on Wave after the two had been inseparable all morning. Kevin Le Poideven found the squalls. Wave did not.
| Pos | Boat | Class | DTF | VMG | Est Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oceans Tribute | Trimaran | 441 NM | 9.1 kts | 4 Jun 19:39 |
| 2 | Vixen Racing | Monohull | 534 NM | 7.9 kts | 5 Jun 14:38 |
| 3 | Electron | Catamaran | 554 NM | 7.6 kts | 5 Jun 19:27 |
| 4 | Sarau | Monohull | 627 NM | 6.7 kts | 6 Jun 16:32 |
| 5 | Pacman | Monohull | 639 NM | 6.6 kts | 6 Jun 20:18 |
| 6 | Roaring Forty | Monohull | 667 NM | 6.2 kts | 7 Jun 06:21 |
| 7 | Wave | Monohull | 744 NM | 5.2 kts | 8 Jun 17:16 |
The mid-fleet battle is the most interesting thing on the tracker. Catnip, Nautilass and Camellia are covered by just 4 NM on DTF — 773, 777 and 777 NM respectively. Camellia and Nautilass share the exact same distance to finish, but Camellia has sailed almost 20 NM less to get there. Ben Ball’s north-easterly routing is paying off.
| Pos | Boat | Handicap | Corrected Elapsed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sarau | 0.798 | 5d 17h 41m 18s |
| 2 | Vixen Racing | 0.941 | 5d 17h 53m 26s |
| 3 | Pacman | 0.840 | 6d 4h 0m 30s |
| 4 | Camellia | 0.706 | 7d 1h 27m 10s |
Sarau leads on PHRF corrected time by just 12 minutes from Vixen Racing. Twelve minutes after 79 hours of racing. Sarau‘s 0.798 handicap is doing its work, but Vixen‘s pace of 173 NM in 24 hours against Sarau‘s 144 NM makes this lead fragile. Camellia has pushed into fourth on corrected time — one to watch.
| Pos | Boat | Handicap | DTF | Est Finish | Corrected Elapsed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Electron | 0.799 | 554 NM | 5 Jun 19:27 | 5d 1h 0m 57s |
| 2 | Oceans Tribute | 0.963 | 441 NM | 4 Jun 19:39 | 5d 2h 56m 6s |
Electron leads Oceans Tribute on General Handicap corrected time — but the gap has closed from 6 hours this morning to just under 2 hours now. Chester is closing fast. If Oceans Tribute finds the right conditions on the run into Southport, Electron‘s lead could be gone before the finish line.
What’s coming for the fleet is 22-25 knots with gusts to 35 on the approach to the Australian coast. After what they sailed through off North Cape, that should feel manageable. But four nights of broken sleep takes something out of you. By tomorrow evening, half the fleet should have the finish line in their sights. Part two of this race is just getting started.
Provisional results. Last position update: 2 Jun 19:00 NZST. All times NZST.
This is Part 2 a multi-part article. See Part 1.
