Clipper Race: Home teams on the hunt

(February 14, 2018; Day 15) – The two Chinese teams continue to lead the Clipper 2017-18 Round the World Yacht Race to Sanya in their home country. Shifting winds have meant that many in the fleet have had to take down spinnakers, but the teams are continuing to maintain excellent speeds towards the Elliot Brown Ocean Sprint.

Qingdao maintains is position on top with around 1500 nautical miles to go and Skipper Chris Kobusch reports: “The wind has shifted to the north and we are now sailing upwind at our preferred angle of 45 degrees heel.”

Whilst he jokes about what living at an angle means for living conditions below deck, he adds: “At least we are still sailing into the right direction at good speeds and the on-deck sailing is great fun.”

It has felt like Groundhog Day as opposed to Valentine’s Day for second-placed Sanya Serenity Coast Skipper, Wendy Tuck, but just 32nm further back in third, PSP Logistics Skipper Matt Mitchell is enjoying changing weather conditions, saying: “Progress has been great and we are rarely below 12 knots at the moment with white sails up, sailing a slightly higher wind angle as we negotiate the next weather system making its way across the fleet.”

Demonstrating how localised the conditions appear to be, fourth-placed Dare To Lead Skipper Dale Smyth is feeling frustrated with his progress, commenting: “We have been caught up in a massive rainsquall and it has now left us drifting in a huge windless hole while we can literally feel the competition sailing away from us.”

Further north in the leading pack, Unicef has progressed much better and moved up to fifth place, though with the wind a little far forward and strengthening, the team is proceeding under white sails without spinnakers. Liverpool 2018 meanwhile has slipped a position to sixth and had a strange encounter with a long line buoy, although it did not cause the team any problems.

Visit Seattle is currently leading the chasing pack in seventh place, but Skipper Nikki Henderson reports: “Unfortunately we have just slowed right down – the trades are weakening. Doing our best to stay ahead of Garmin [in eighth] which is sailing excellently. It’s feeling less and less likely that we are going to be able to catch the guys ahead but – hey ho – it’s not so bad out here anyway.”

Another team struggling with the weakening winds is ninth-placed HotelPlanner.com, with Skipper Conall Morrison explaining: “Last night we got caught in a patch of light winds that does not seem to have affected the rest of the fleet and so have lost some ground. We’ve been through our suite of spinnakers today and have settled on the Code 3 (heavyweight spinnaker) for now.”

Further back in tenth place is Nasdaq, though Skipper Rob Graham is pleased that his team is settling into a well-established routine, saying: “Just helming and trimming for small fluctuations in the wind, and sail changes according to larger changes. We have safely crossed the Mariana Trench (the world’s deepest patch of water) without being gobbled up by any of the weird creatures that live down there.”

Having taken a more easterly route, GREAT Britain is in eleventh position and is back on track after retrieving one of its spinnakers from underneath the boat. Skipper David Hartshorn explains: “After some brilliant team work and some lateral thinking and a good hour and a half’s hard work, the Code 2 (mediumweight spinnaker) was back on board. It will sadly not be joining us for the rest of this race – the damage is just a bit too much to repair while at sea.

“The best part of this whole event was the debrief, which was really positive with five different learning outcomes and, most importantly of all, the “why” of each outcome was nailed.”

Whilst the veering east-southeast to southeast winds will decrease steadily over the next 24 hours, the good news for the fleet, the northeast monsoon winds are expected to return around the Luzon Strait in the coming days to help push the teams towards 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