When sport and life collide

The Clipper Race was established in 1996 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world in 1968-69. His aim was to allow anyone, regardless of previous sailing experience, the chance to embrace the thrill of ocean racing; it is the only event of its kind for amateur sailors.

Held biennially, the course for the Clipper 2019-20 Round the World Yacht Race is divided into 8 legs and 15 individual races, with the 11 teams now on the fifth leg which includes three races between Australia and China. However, the coronavirus outbreak has required a change of course.

When the World Health Organization recently declared a “public-health emergency of international concern” – a designation that it has used on five previous occasions, for epidemics of H1N1 swine flu, polio, Ebola, Zika, and Ebola again – it was no longer prudent for the fleet to tempt fate.

The initial plan for the first race was to stay on course from Australia and finish as planned in the southern Chinese city of Sanya, but to cancel all festivities to protect the sailors. But after further review, the teams will now skip Sanya and finish where the second race was to conclude in Subic Bay, Philippines.

What happens after that is unclear as the fleet was to conclude the fifth leg with a race from Subic Bay, located at the northern tip of the Philippines, to the Chinese city of Zhuhai near Hong Kong.

For now, the Clipper Race will continue to work with its Chinese organizing committees and has contingency plans prepared should the race route need to be further amended.

Race details – Team list – Race route – Tracker – Facebook

The Clipper 2019-20 Race Route:
The fleet departs from London, UK to Portimão, Portugal; across the Atlantic to Punta del Este, Uruguay; the South Atlantic to Cape Town, South Africa; across the Southern Ocean’s Roaring Forties to Fremantle, Western Australia; around to the Whitsundays on the east coast of Australia, back into the Northern Hemisphere to China where teams will race to Qingdao, via Sanya and Zhuhai; across the mighty North Pacific to Seattle, USA; to New York via the famous Panama Canal; to Bermuda and then it’s a final Atlantic crossing to Derry-Londonderry in Northern Ireland; before arriving back to London as fully proven ocean racers.

Source: Clipper Round the World Yacht Race