Polish solo sailor Zbigniew Gutkowski took second place in ocean sprint two of the VELUX 5 OCEANS solo round the world race. The 36-year-old skipper from Gdansk crossed the finish line in Wellington, New Zealand, on his Eco yacht Operon Racing at 6.27am local time (5.27pm UTC).
Gutkowski arrived less than 24 hours behind leg winner Brad Van Liew. The second of five ocean sprints from Cape Town in South Africa to Wellington
took Gutek 31 days, eight hours and 27 minutes to complete. Zbigniew Gutkowski is one of Poland's best known and most experience sailors with a wealth of offshore and inshore racing. Known as 'Gutek' and from Gdansk, he has experience sailing in a wide range of mono and multihulls and has clocked up ore than 100,000 miles in his bid to become the first Polish sailor ever to race solo around the world.
The VELUX 5 OCEANS is the oldest single-handed round the world yacht race. Run every 4 years since 1982, the race is the longest and toughest event for any individual in any sport. The race is a series of five high-pressure ocean sprints within a marathon circumnavigation. The 30,000 route takes the sailors from La Rochelle to Cape Town, then onto Wellington, Salvador, Charleston and back to La Rochelle for the finish.
