China Sea Race: Team Alive-Rampage fends off Centennial V for line honours

Team Alive-Rampage crossed the finish line in Subic Bay on Friday afternoon to claim line honours in the 2026 Rolex China Sea Race, completing the 565-nautical-mile crossing from Hong Kong in 49 hours, 55 minutes and 57 seconds. It was fast – but not quite fast enough to break their own decade-old race record.

The Reichel/Pugh 66, co-owned by Phillip Turner and Noel Chan, had led the fleet since slipping out of Victoria Harbour on Wednesday and built a commanding 20-nautical-mile lead over Standard Insurance Centennial V by banking a southerly route offshore. But as so often happens in this race, the Luzon Hole had other ideas. The notorious light-wind zone off the northern tip of the Philippines has swallowed many a record attempt, and this one proved no different. 2 hours and 24 minutes shy of the monohull record they set in 2016.

Still, the crew weren't dwelling on what might have been. Australian skipper Duncan Hine summed up the team's approach: "We basically drove the boat like we stole it." He praised the partnership between the Alive and Rampage programmes, describing the culture as "phenomenal" and saying “this is the first time Alive has ever had another team involved in the programme. And looking ahead, I can’t see why we couldn’t do it again.”

Technician Matt Humphries acknowledged the record stayed just out of reach – "about 18nm short" – but said the decision to take the southerly route was the right call. "That part actually went very well for us – we didn't have to sail upwind at the end. The boys pushed extremely hard. They were on fire."

Standard Insurance Centennial V, the Reichel/Pugh 75 skippered by Filipino veteran Ernesto Echauz, finished second after hugging the coast to catch the developing sea breeze. Echauz called it "an excellent race" and praised the decision to move this year's edition forward to the start of March, about a month earlier than usual, when the winds are stronger. Bar a two-hour spell where the fleet barely moved, "everything was fine from start to finish," he said. "We finished in just a little over two days, which is really very fast. Fantastic."

Behind the two big boats, a TP52 duel produced the tightest battle of the race. Happy Go, last year's line honours and IRC overall winner, was locked in a cat-and-mouse fight with Standard Insurance Centennial VII for much of the final stretch. The two boats traded the lead repeatedly before Happy Go found an extra gear in the final two hours, eventually crossing 41 minutes clear.

Further back in the fleet, the conditions exacted a toll. The opening night was a punchy one, with winds building to 25-28 knots, and not everyone made it through unscathed. The double-handed crew on Juice retired with equipment problems, while Jibulai withdrew after a broken mainsail. Others embraced the chaos – Peter Churchouse on Moonblue 2 reported "a big night, charging through the oil rigs and ripping off roughly 170nm."

And then there was Tiger Mok aboard 2 Easy, the race's first-ever single-handed entry. Racing his Sun Fast 3600, Mok survived a hairy first night – including an autopilot malfunction caused by a sail tie – and greeted the sunrise with a new appreciation for solo ocean racing. "Survived the first evening," he reported at dawn. "Never felt this happy and special to see the sunrise." Mok is on course to complete his historic solo crossing on Saturday afternoon.

The Sunday Telegraph Trophy for line honours now belongs to Alive-Rampage. With the frontrunners ashore, attention turns to the fight for the China Sea Race Trophy – the IRC overall prize – where Seawolf, skippered by William Liu, remains the boat to beat. Further back, Zesst and Zoe's Guard have been trading blows in IRC Division 1, while Fenice has been steadily gaining ground in IRC Premier.

Follow the fleet via the tracker at rolexchinasearace.com.