Clipper Fleet making great progress toward San Francisco

(April 3, 2014) – The Clipper Race teams are reaching east towards San Francisco with the majority of the fleet positioned far enough east to stay ahead of a front associated with the next low pressure system. The wind has been steady in strength and direction even allowing for some general maintenance to take place on some of the yachts.

GREAT Britain is still in first place, Qingdao has moved up into third, 21 miles behind the leader, and Invest Africa is three miles behind in third place.

Team Garmin skipper Jan Ridd said he was still looking back to see if he could see the front that is behind catching up, so his team would be ready to reduce sails. “However I am beginning to hope/feel that we might have got far enough east to avoid the worst of its effects.

“It looks like most of the fleet is firmly in the same airflow and we are all on virtually the same heading and around the same speed, so until the weather starts to change there should be no large gains or losses, as with a matched one design fleet the boats’ performance should be very closely matched. Hopefully we can hold this wind for as long as possible and keep making this great progress.”

PSP Logistics is currently in fifth and racing on elapsed time after setting off two days later than the rest of the fleet, however, so is in slightly stronger wind as it is closer to the front.

Skipper Chris Hollis said: “Last night I got myself up on deck to take over the helm, and although the wind at this stage was only 20 to 25 knots the helm was a handful. Once I had my bearing on the helm the boat shot off down the face of a wave at 22 knots into what seemed a never ending black hole with spray ripping over the side decks soaking everyone. It was time to pull the kite down, besides we were about 50 degrees off course due to the wind shift.”

Report by event media

Skipper reports: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/skipper-reports
Race tracker: http://yb.tl/clipper2013-race10
Race website: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com

Background:
The 40,000 mile Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race began in London, UK on September 1 for the fleet of twelve identical Tony Castro designed Clipper 70s.

Eleven teams started the 5,600 mile leg from Qingdao, China to San Francisco, USA on March 16. PSP Logistics started the leg on March 19, a result of their late arrival into China due to several setbacks.

All twelve teams are expected in San Francisco between April 8-12, subject to prevailing conditions. The fleet will be berthed at South Beach Yacht Club until the April 19 start of Race 11 to the Panama Canal.

The race route includes Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Cape Town, South Africa; Albany, Sydney, Hobart and Brisbane, Australia; Singapore; Qingdao, China; San Francisco, USA; Panama; Jamaica; New York, USA; Derry-Londonderry, Ireland; and Den Helder, Netherlands before returning to London in July.