Clipper Round the World Yacht Race

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The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race was conceived in 1995 by well-known yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and together with William Ward, founded Clipper Ventures, a company that would run the race. The first race set off a year later on 16 October 1996. The event gives paying amateur crew members the chance to sail around the world. The organizers own a fleet of identical yachts, and provide qualified skippers to lead each team. Crew can either sign up for the whole race, or one or more legs. In contrast to the slightly older Global Challenge, the Clipper race uses lighter, faster boats and the route follows the prevailing currents and winds.

The race ran every two years between 1996 and 2002, and then skipped a year, with a race beginning in 2005 and finishing in July 2006. The Clipper 07-08 race started on 16 September 2007.

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[edit] History

Clipper Ventures commissioned eight Camper and Nicholson Bluewater 58 derived yachts, normally known as Clipper 60's. The boats were named after the old Tea Clippers, and were prepared in short order to start the first race. The boats returned in 1997, and then proceeded to circle the world three more times in 1998-9, 2000-1 & 2002-3. The boats were then retired, and new Clipper '68 boats, designed by Dubois naval architects, and built by Double Happiness Shipyards in Shanghai were completed. The '05-06 race was the first to use the new boats, and they are currently undertaking their second circumnavigation in the Clipper 2007-08 Race.

[edit] Clipper '96

The first race took a route starting from Plymouth and then sailing to Madeira, Fort Lauderdale, Panama, Galapagos, Hawaii, Yokohama, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seychelles, Durban, Cape Town, Salvador (Brazil), the Azores and back to Plymouth.

Clipper '96 Results
Position Boat Skipper Points
1 Aerial Ras Turner 24
2 Mermerus Jim Thom 47
3 Taeping Adrian Faiers 61
4 Chrysolite Colin de Mowbray 64
5 Blackadder Andrew Spedding 77
6 Serica Bluey Neale 82
7 Thermopylae Mervyn Wheatley 91
8 Antiope Charlie Osborne 93

Scores were calculated on a for each race. First = 1 point, Second = 2 points and so on...

[edit] Clipper '98

In 1998 the race had it's second running. Colin de Mowbray, took over as race director. This time, seven boats raced, with Blackadder not competing. The route was largely the same as the '96 race, but called briefly at Nassau in the Bahamas before going to Marina Hemingway, just to the west of Havana, a direct course between the USA and Cuba being impossible. The race was won, convincingly, by Alex Thompson, who was the youngest skipper to win a round the world yacht race at just 24.

Clipper '98 Results
Position Boat Skipper Points
1 Aerial Alex Thompson 24.5
2 Antiope Keith Harris 50
3 Chrysolite Tim Hedges 58.5
4 Mermerus Barnie Sollars 67
5 Taeping Nick Fleming 71.5
6 Serica Rupert Dean 76
7 Thermopylae Malcolm Todd 82.5

[edit] The Times Clipper 2000 Race

The Times Clipper 2000 race saw the return of an eight boat fleet. All of the boats were renamed after cities in the UK, with the crews, where possible, drawn from the city their boat was named for. The stop in the Azores was replaced by one in New York and to compensate for the extra distance the Seychelles to Durban to Cape Town leg was reduced to Mauritius to Cape Town. The fleet suffered a bad storm east of Tokyo bay in March 2001 in which several of the boats were damaged, and the race had to be restarted from Yokohama. This was the only race to have a title sponsor, with the UK daily broadsheet The Times sponsoring the race and trophy.

The point scoring method was altered, with the races now scoring 8 points for a win, 7 for second and so on.

The Times Clipper 2000 Results
Position Boat Skipper Points
1 Bristol Bob Beggs 97.4
2 Jersey Paul de la Haye 96
3 London Stuart Gibson 82
4 Liverpool Rupert Dean 77
5 Plymouth Matt Baker 75
6 Portsmouth Martin Clough 72
7 Leeds Simon Rowell 40
8 Glasgow Ed Green 38

[edit] The Clipper 2002 Race

In 2002 the start point was moved to Liverpool, and an estimated 40,000 spectators came to see the boats off despite a 24-hour delay due to storms in the Irish Sea. It was the final circumnavigation for the well weathered Clipper 60's. Three of the boats were renamed, and international cities were now added to the race, Hong Kong, Cape Town and New York. Colin de Mowbray stepped down as race director, to be replaced by Tim Hedges.

Clipper 2002 Results
Position Boat Skipper Points
1 Jersey Simon Rowell 97.5
2 Bristol Richard Butler 95.5
3 Liverpool Adam Kyffin 74
4 Hong Kong Justin Taylor 71
5 Glasgow Rupert Parkhouse 65
6 London Rory Gillard 57.5
7 New York Ross Daniel 55
8 Cape Town Roger Steven-Jennings 30

[edit] Clipper 05-06 Race

The 2005 race involved new boats and a course that circumnavigated from east to west. The new yacht design was the Dubois 68, eight feet longer than its predecessor, but weighing two tons less. After the initial three international boats from the 2002 race, the race was made fully international, with boats sponsored by Victoria, Canada, Qingdao, Durban, New York, Singapore and Western Australia as well as the home teams of Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff and Jersey. The route was altered to take account of the faster boats, and to take in stopovers at many of the sponsoring cities. For the first time a leg across the Southern Ocean between Durban and Fremantle, and a leg across the North Pacific between Qingdao and Victoria, Canada. The race schedule was significantly altered when Glasgow Clipper reported keel problems in the South China Sea, and diverted to Subic Bay in the Philippines, followed by the rest of the fleet that were showing symptoms, causing an enforced 6 week stopover. The revised schedule dropped the planned stopover in Yokohama from the route, and moving the Caribbean stopover from Curacao to Jamaica.

Clipper 05-06 Leg Results
Start Liverpool Cascais Salvador Durban Fremantle Singapore Subic Bay Qingdao Victoria Panama Jamaica New York Jersey Holyhead
End Cascais Salvador Durban Fremantle Singapore Subic Bay Qingdao Victoria Panama Jamaica New York Jersey Holyhead Liverpool
Liverpool '08 1 2 Jt. 5 6 5 - 1 3 3 9 8 6 1 3
Glasgow : Scotland with Style 10 10 9 10 (-1) 9 - 8 8 (-2) 8 (-4) 10 4 9 7 9
Uniquely Singapore 4 6 Jt. 5. 9 6 - 4 (-1) 9 (-1) 1 4 1 7 4 6
westernaustralia.com 2 1 1 3 2 - 9 5 7 2 2 2 2 1
Jersey 9 7 10 5 8 - 10 (-2) 10 (-1) 10 (-4) 7 10 5 9 8
Durban 3 5 8 1 (-1) 1 - 3 2 (-1) 2 1 6 8 3 7
New York 6 4 2 7 3 - 6 7 (-1) 4 3 3 1 5 2
Qingdao 7 9 4 4 7 - 7 6 9 5 5 4 6 5
Victoria 8 8 (-1) 7 2 4 - 2 (-1) 1 6 8 7 3 10 4
Cardiff 5 3 (-1) 3 8 10 - 5 (-1) 4 5 6 9 10 8 10

Races score 1st = 10 points, 2nd = 9 pts, etc. However, Race 1 ( Liverpool to Cascais ) and Race 13 ( Holyhead to Liverpool ) were scored at half points. In addition, the race committee did sometimes apply points penalties, invariably for excessive sail damage. The penalty points are shown in brackets after the result.

The original race 6, from Singapore to Qingdao was abandoned when the fleet diverted to Subic, and no points were awarded.

Liverpool and Singapore were awarded a tie in Race 3, after Liverpool had a GPS failure, and could not confirm it's finish time with sufficient accuracy to determine whether it was ahead or behind Singapore. 5.5 points were awarded to each boat.

Clipper 05-06 Results
Position Boat Skipper Points
1 westernaustralia.com Dave Pryce/Mark Preedy 94.5
2 Durban Craig Miller 85.0
3 New York Joff Bailey 82.0
4 Liverpool '08 Tim McGee ( Sam Fuller Jamaica->New York ) 80.5
5 Uniquely Singapore Richard Falk 68.5
6 Victoria Ewan Hind 65.0
7 Qingdao Danny Watson 59.0
8 Cardiff Conor Fogherty ( Mervyn Wheatley Victoria->Panama ) 51.5
9 Jersey Mark Taylor/Simon Rowell/Richard /Mervyn Wheatley 25.5
10 Glasgow: Scotland with Style Graeme Johnston/Rory Gillard 23.5

[edit] Clipper 07-08 Race

The Clipper 07-08 race started on 16 September 2007. Once again, 10 Clipper '68s are taking part. There have been some changes to the lineup with Victoria, Jersey and Cardiff replaced by Jamaica, Hull & Humber and Nova Scotia. Indhra Chagoury takes over as race director. The race has some changes to the 05-06 route. La Rochelle is the first stop, replacing Cascais, and the route for Leg 5 changes, with the race leaving Qingdao and heading to Santa Cruz via Hawaii, eliminating the stopovers in Yokohama and Victoria. The final leg also changes, with an extra stop in Halifax, and the final pitstop in Cork, rather than Jersey.

Clipper 07-08 Leg Results
Start Liverpool La Rochelle Salvador Durban Fremantle Singapore Qingdao Hawaii Santa Cruz Panama Jamaica New York Halifax Cork
End La Rochelle Salvador Durban Fremantle Singapore Qingdao Hawaii Santa Cruz Panama Jamaica New York Halifax Cork Liverpool
Liverpool '08 2 4 2 9 2 8 7 7 6 5 3 9
Glasgow : Scotland with Style 3 2 3 6 6 3 3 5 5 3 5 2
Uniquely Singapore 7 7 8 7 7 7 4 1 7 6 7 8
westernaustralia2011.com 9 6 6 2 3 6 RTD DNC 9 10 2 1
Jamaica RTD 10 9 8 9 5 8 6 8 8 6 10
Durban 2010 and Beyond 5 1 7 1 5 2 6 DNC RTD 7 10 7
Hull & Humber 1 5 4* 4 4 4 1 4 1 1 8 4
Qingdao 6 8 5 3 10 10 5 8 2 4 4 3
New York 8 9 1 10 1 1 2 3 3 2 1 6
Nova Scotia 4 3 10 5 8 9 9 2 4 9 9 5
  • In Race 3, Hull and Humber crossed the line first, but had a 4 hour penalty applied for using her motor during a casualty evacuation near the start of the race. As New York were six minutes behind, and Liverpool and Glasgow also finished within four hours, Hull and Humber dropped to 4th place in that race.
  • In Race 8, Western Australia and Durban did not compete after losing their masts in Race 7. The race committee awarded them points for the race based on their average position in races 1-7. Durban got 7 points, Western Australia got 5.

RTD = Retired, DNC = Did not compete

Clipper 07-08 Boats
Position Boat Skipper Points
1 New York Cassie Kennedy/Jerry Crew/Duggie Gillespie 83.5
2 Hull & Humber Danny Watson 82.0
3 Glasgow: Scotland with Style Hannah Jenner 78.0
4 Durban 2010 and Beyond Ricky Chalmers 64.0
5 Liverpool '08 Ben Galloway 62.5
6 Qingdao Marcus Cholerton-Brown 61.5
7 westernaustralia2011.com Martin Silk 61.0
8 Uniquely Singapore Mark Preedy 54.0
9 Nova Scotia Rob McInally 50.5
10 Jamaica Simon Bradley 31.5

Where two teams are equal on points, their relative position is determined using the countback rule. That is, the team with the most first place finishes is placed higher; if those are equal, look at second place finishes, and so forth...

Points have been deducted for sail damage : Glasgow, Hull and Humber 4, Jamaica 3, Liverpool & Nova Scotia 1.

[edit] External links