She may be over 1200 miles behind him, but on the next rung of the ladder is the skipper who sailed her boat, when it was PRB, to win the 2004-5 race, Vincent Riou. And of the top six boats, now half of them were built launched in 2004, or before.

Is such a statistic insightful or coincidence? It is certainly hard to draw conclusions, because one of the biggest factors is luck-good or bad.

Dick’s preparation had been absolutely meticulous, a synthesis of science and simple common sense. He had launched early enough, worked hard to develop and improve his Farr design and was the skipper who had won the last round the world race. But so too, Dominique Wavre is in Fremantle with an injured boat, having done all he could to sail as many miles with his boat, and also always erred on the ‘belt and braces’ side of specifying equipment and fittings. 

Davies said today how she had pledged to her friend Seb Josse, another recent victim on who fell to wave which simply had BT’s name on,  that she would try to curb her enthusiasm for speed, and sail safely to the finish. Such supportive calls are commonplace among the fleet now. Rich Wilson and Jonny Malbon talk regularly, Dee Caffari and Arnaud Boissieres, Brian Thompson and Sam and Dee, Dee and Sam, and of course Vincent Riou and Armel Le Cleach, all communicate together by phone, VHF and e-mail.