Wild Oats got the better start and managed to cross the fleet on her first tack while Scandia couldn't cross the fleet once she ran out of water (due to the exclusion zone). This forced her to put in more tacks than Wild Oats as they worked their way up the harbour.
Wild Oats won the race out of the harbour by around 1 minute in nearly 12 minutes- reportedly doing 11.75 knots upwind in a 12 knot breese. Scandia was around a minute behind.

After leaving the harbour Scandia went out to sea to pick up a stronger southern current and Wild Oats stayed closer I guess they were hoping there would be more breese closer in.

At least that seemed to be the strategy in the early stages.

In the game of cheque book sailing you would expect Wild Oats to be the quicker boat. So provided they both stuck to those strategies it looks like the southern current has come through for Scandia.


It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 24 hours.