Having been 10th at the north end of the island when she passed La Tete a L’Anglais it was a disappointed Pip Hare (Medallia) who crossed the finish line of the 12th Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe in 12th position in the IMOCA Class.

Compromised by a hole low down in her mainsail meaning she has had to sail with one reef for the final six days of the course, Her lack of power proved critical in the last 50 or so miles of the course to the Pointe-à-Pitre finish line. From being seven miles ahead of rivals Romain Attanasio (Fortinet-Best Western) and Seb Marsset (Mon Courtier Energie-Cap Agir Ensemble) Hare became slowed just before Basse Terre with less than 30 miles to the finish line where Attanasio passed. She then lost Marsset at the southern end of Basse Terre and although she closed distance to be a few hundred metres behind she crossed 1 minute and 17s behind the French skipper while Attanasio was nearly 20 minutes ahead in tenth.

Hare crossed the finish line at 21:53:12hrs UTC for an elapsed time of 13d 08hrs 38min 12secs finishing 1d 15h 1m 47s behind winner Thomas Ruyant

After her obligatory rum Pip Hare said on the dock, "I just wanted to nail it in this final race of the season and I think we did that."

"It was a crazy race, really intense and I got duffed up a bit at the end. But I am so happy to be here. The circuit round the island is just brutal, why would you do that to someone? Do they not realise we have just sailed across the Atlantic on our own, what a way to finish a race. I am completely knackered. I came in known the guys were so close behind and I was watching them. And I did a couple of gybes this morning to cover them. And I thought ‘this is good, I have a good six miles on them and it is fine I will go for it. I might fall into a hole and they will fall into it and I will get out first it will be fine. No. Romain sailed around me. And then I got really tired. I was so exhausted by the time I got to the buoy Basse Terre there was nothing left in the tank, my arms were just rinsed. I was so tired. I nearly dropped a sail in the water. All the chickens came home to roost. What was good though was Seb at the end. He crossed tacks with me at the end and I was so despondent I was saying to myself ‘you have just thrown away a tenth…..’ and then I saw an opportunity to get back in the game and it was really nice, it was so close in the end. It was so nice to be racing to the end as it picked me back up again. And if the course had been a mile longer I would have had him."

"It's my best result in the IMOCA class ever and for a ‘small foil boat’ boat I am proud."

"It was intense there were two definite halves to the race. The first half I was very much in conservation mode, I just had this niggling thoughts about dropping the rig or damaging the boat so that I could not finish. And so a week of beating, I was being cautious. I was safe and then after the Azores, I saw something to make a difference, to do something different and it worked but I was limping along with the biggest hole in my mainsail. It really hurt me just now. I hoisted it round the back of the island as I needed it, but as soon as the breeze came in I put the reef back in as I thought I could just blow up the whole main and I have already ripped the foot off the J2. So I could only use the J3."

"Three women in the top 12…well I feel like I let us down because it should have been three women in the top ten – and it was at Tete-à-L’anglais – but it really is super cool. Still women are under represented in this sport but in our class is one of the toughest in the race and we have 25% participation from women and three in top 12 and top 10 until about two hours ago!"