Clipper Race: Points on the board

(February 9, 2018; Day 10) – The spotlight today for the Clipper 2017-18 Round the World Yacht Race saw the battle to the Scoring Gate come to a close for the three teams chasing for bonus race points with two of the three teams making debut appearances on the Scoring Gate leaderboard.

Visit Seattle was the first team to cross the line and took three bonus race points and making its fourth appearance on the Scoring Gate leaderboard. In second place, Garmin made its debut on the Soring Gate leaderboard and will take two bonus race points and Gaëtan Thomas’ team was closely followed by Nasdaq which picked up its first bonus race point of the Clipper 2017-18 Race edition.

However, it was not a straightforward win for any of the teams. Nasdaq Skipper Rob Graham reflects: “The final 50 miles to the Scoring Gate seemed to take forever through light and variable winds, so although we chased hard, we couldn’t catch Visit Seattle and Garmin which got through the Scoring Gate ahead of us – well done guys.”

Across the Clipper Race fleet, however, it is the highly anticipated trade winds that are at the forefront of minds today as the pack continues to fight its way slowly through a wind hole.

There has been change yet again on the leaderboard and at the time of writing, it is Qingdao that takes the top spot today followed by Dare To Lead in second and Sanya Serenity Coast in third.

Qingdao Skipper Chris Kobusch reports: “The three-watch system that we introduced seems to have worked quite well so far, but we will only see just how well it works once we have a bit of breeze again and are back to sailing the boat in normal conditions.

“Hopefully tomorrow this time I will be reporting fast boat speeds and exciting downwind sailing with the spinnakers up. Fingers crossed!”

Although, with such fickle winds and the proximity of teams to the rhumb line, it is likely that the podium positions will change frequently over the coming 24 hours.

HotelPlanner.com is in fourth place today, its highest position on the leaderboard since The Forever Tropical Paradise race began ten day ago, and is followed by two of the three most westerly teams, Visit Seattle (in fifth) and Garmin (in sixth) who decided to break away in favour of the Scoring Gate opportunity.

Skipper of Garmin, Gaëtan Thomas is looking forward to the appearance of the trade winds, and hoping that the tactical decision to stay west doesn’t backfire. He says: “Hopefully, when the trade winds do arrive, it won’t take us too much longer to feel its effects than the other boats and I imagine that we will see the fleet compacting slowly again”.

Seventh place goes to PSP Logistics, which is the most north easterly team, and eighth placed Unicef is following a very similar course after re-appearing from Stealth Mode where it has made good progress in comparison with other teams over the last twelve hours.

For PSP Logistics, the weather conditions have started to look up, with Skipper Matt Mitchell reporting: “The wind shift that we have been waiting for has finally arrived meaning we are pointing exactly where we need to get to, now we hope only a short wait before the wind increases to really push us on our way.”

Liverpool 2018 also activated Stealth Mode yesterday and have come out in ninth place but holds a more central position in the pack than tenth placed Nasdaq which is over near the rhumb line.

Nasdaq Skipper Rob Graham is happy with the Scoring Gate success, but is nevertheless sceptical as to whether the tactic will pay off in the long run. He explains: “We have been heading west through more settled wind, still in company with Visit Seattle and Garmin which are visible by AIS and eyeball.

“The three of us have obviously picked a very different weather routing strategy to the rest of the fleet spread out NE of us, and we may not find out which worked better for several days yet.”

Whilst it is currently unclear as to which tactics will prove to be the most advantageous, Clipper Race Meteorologist Simon Rowell explains that we may see the results over the next 24 hours. Simon says: “By tomorrow, the fleet should see some more serious progress, and will likely cross a band of increased squall activity trailing behind the low-pressure system.”

Further back in the fleet, GREAT Britain Skipper, David Hartshorn, has praised his crew for keeping up morale despite the frustrating conditions: “The wind, or rather the lack of it, has been very frustrating over the last 24-36 hours and our slow challenging process north could have made any crew switch off. I have been really impressed with the work the GREAT Britain team has put in to keep us moving.”

Looking ahead, teams will be thinking tactically about the upcoming Elliott Brown Ocean Sprint and then the last section of the race onwards to Sanya.

Event details – Race facts – Race viewer – Facebook

Beginning January 30, Race 7 of the 13 stage Clipper 2017-18 Round the World Yacht Race has the fleet racing 4280nm from Whitsunday Islands in Australia to Sanya, China. From there teams will race onwards to Qingdao, also in China; across the North Pacific Ocean to Seattle, and through the Panama Canal to New York.

The course to Sanya is expected to take between 23 to 27 days, with the fleet expected to arrive into the Sanya Serenity Marina between February 21 and 25.

Background: Held biennially, the Clipper 2017-18 Round the World Yacht Race got underway August 20 for the fleet of twelve* identical Tony Castro designed Clipper 70s. The 40,000nm course is divided into 13 individual races with the team having the best cumulative score winning the Clipper Race Trophy. The race concludes in Liverpool on July 28.

Each team is led by a professional skipper with an all-amateur crew that signs up for one, some, or all the races. The 2017-18 race, expected to take 11 months, has attracted 712 people representing 41 nationalities, making it the largest to date.

* Twelve teams began the first leg but one yacht (Greenings) ran aground just hours after the start on October 31 of the third leg from Cape Town, South Africa to Fremantle, Australia. The crew was safely evacuated but damage to the boat was deemed too extensive for it to continue in the 2017-18 edition.

Race Route – Race Schedule and Miles

Source: Clipper Ventures