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Posts tagged ‘TheClipperRace’

Dec 4

High sea drama season

The best way to start the weekend is right here by my computer, looking back the past month of the salty and slippery world of Clipper Round the World Race 09-10. This is what happened last month:

Drama! Sea beasts! Wrecks! Life-threatening danger!

Soap at the Sea

Ouch ouch ouch. Team Finland skipper Eero Lehtinen has announced his resignation for family reasons. What a sad loss it is for the crew of Team Finland, Clipper Race and spectators at home, but naturally family comes first. Eero will be replaced by a Southampton-based skipper Rob McInally, who will take over the boat during the Xmas stopover in Australia. We will see how the new skipper will spank inspire his crew to reach podium places in the races around the other half of the globe.

The Curious Case of a Whale

Team Finland had a close encounter with a whale on South Indian Ocean a few days ago. It was recorded as a collision, but surely enough it hardly can be an accident as whales can detect objects through ultrasound. In a middle of a South Indian Ocean! It would be just as likely as Brian being saved by a flying saucer. My theory is that the whale was either curious, territorial or amorous and therefore decided to kick the boat. The strike did not stir up any reaction, and therefore the whale decided to find someone else to play with. There is no way a sail boat could crash into a whale just like that. Interestingly this incident also revealed that each clipper boat has a crew member assigned as a conservationist, who records sightings of whales, dolphins, porpoises and sea monsters.

Kerfuffle between Irish and Englishmen

What’s new with this then? Instead of a pub quarrel over stout vs. ale, this is about boats clashing on the start of Race 4 from Cape Town, South Africa to Geraldton, Western Australia. The collision resulted in the two teams returning to harbour. Fortunately none of the crew were hurt but boats took some damage: Hull & Humber’s port aft quarter required a good week’s repair and Cork’s bow about 5 days. Now both of the boats are back in race, and catching up the leading fleet. However, it’s a long way to Australia – let’s keep fingers crossed that both boats will make it there by Xmas. (Main photo by Clipper Ventures PLC)

A dramatic rescue at sea
Dramatic rescue at sea.

Man Overboard!

A man went overboard on Hull & Humber in South Atlantic already a month ago. It must have been daunting event for the whole crew, but they handled it professionally and fortunately nobody got hurt in this accident. This thing has resurfaced (geddit) through the most popular videos of the BBC news site. Fortunately digital media keeps important things floating (I’m cracking myself up), as this was a really big thing. See the video of a yachtsman overboard in South Atlantic in the BBC News. This is the SECOND EVER man-overboard incident in the whole history of Clipper Race Round the World events.

Good going, but stay clipped, folks!

Nov 14

Victory for Cork in South Atlantic leg of Clipper 09-10

Press Release: The jubilant crew of Cork, Ireland, has arrived in Cape Town after taking victory in Race 3, the South Atlantic leg, of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race. They crossed the finish line in Table Bay at 1638 local time (1438 GMT), accompanied by a pod of dolphins surfing down the face of the waves.

The Irish team, led by skipper Richie Fearon, has led the race for the last six days, working themselves into an unassailable position to claim their first win of the 35,000-mile challenge of a lifetime.

Team Finland has scored their third podium finish in as many races, finishing in second place. The team, led by Helsinki-born skipper, Eero Lehtinen, crossed the finish line in Table Bay, Cape Town in pitch darkness and heavy seas at 0028 local time (2228 UTC, Thursday 12 November).

Team Finland arrived just ahead of Uniquely Singapore who finished at 0159 local time (2359 UTC) and did not let up the pressure on their rivals throughout the closing stages of the 3,300-mile race from Rio de Janeiro.

During the early stages of the race Eero admitted they were finding it hard to get back into their rhythm after the stopover in Rio and Team Finland had to fight all the way for their points in this race.
“I’d say half way was the hardest and then we came quite nicely through and the end was actually amazingly easy overtaking the last couple of boats,” he said. “At the start our tactical choices were not brilliant – we were playing the very conservative middle ground, not going either way very much and, to be honest, we were looking at Spirit of Australia quite a lot. When we split away it was a very good move going south so we left them and never looked back. Twenty-nine points out of 30 isn’t bad – we just have to work out how to get the scoring gates right then it’s nearly perfect!”

Uniquely Singapore arrived just behind Team Finland. An exhausted Uniquely Singapore skipper, Jim Dobie was very pleased with his team’s performance. As he stepped off the yacht onto the pontoon at Royal Cape Yacht Club he said, “We’ve got the taste for it now – you don’t want to let go when you get the podium places. It was a hard fought battle and a tough race. Fast and furious – superb! We had two slightly disappointing races to begin with but now we’ve clicked and we’re back into it. The team feels like a racing team now and we’re definitely going to keep our place up the top.”

The rest of the ten strong fleet, including Jamaica Lightning Bolt, Hull & Humber, Qingdao, Spirit of Australia, Edinburgh Inspiring Capital, Cape Breton Island and California are due to finish in the next few days and are all expected in Cape Town by Sunday afternoon.

The whole fleet will move to the V&A Waterfront on Friday 20 November where the yachts will be available for public viewing. The race will restart on Sunday 22 November, the yachts departing the V&A at 11am for start of the race from Cape Town to Geraldton-Greenhough, Western Australia, at 2pm.

Photo: Clipper Ventures PLC

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If you’re in Cape Town, make your way to marina. Say hello to crews for me.

Sep 16

The Clipper Round the World Race 09-10

It’s on!

It’s been a long wait, and finally there’s action! The Clipper Round the World Race 09-10 started from Hull last weekend.

There were thousands of people seeing the boats and crews off. It was truly a spectacular event with Red Arrow jet aerobatics show, concerts and finally the clipper parade and race start.

It’s amazing to know that I will be on one of those boats in two years time! If I’d ever end up lacking motivation to work for securing the berth (which I doubt), I’ll just think about twinkling eyes of those crew members who I met in Hull. They all were full of excitement, anticipation and energy – and totally ready to break everyday comfort zones. Read more